Forgotten Secret
by crimeson-plasma
Summary: Luffy is brought into a cruel game of immortals and he is set on getting revenge on his brothers 'murderer', but little does he know that to do this he must discover a forgotten secret that involves his brother, him and feared prophecy. An AU and Acelu.
1. Chapter 1

Okay! This is my first ever One Piece fanfic, so please forgive me for any characters that are OOC, I tried to make them as accurate as possible. Please inform me of any OOCness and I will try and fix it! (But please make this constructively, not with flames) =D I would like to say that this story will have future Acelu, with some possible side pairings that I will tell when I decide them. It also has some indirect spoilers of the Sabo arc, that even slight are still there (or maybe I'm just imagining things). This is also an AU universe, so I will not follow the normal One Piece storyline. Well! Having said all of this, I hope you enjoy this story!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of its characters, Oda-sama does. I do however own the plot of this story

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I remember perfectly how it all happened. Yes, I remember every detail of that fateful day perfectly. I remember every move that I made, every word that was said and every step that was taken. I remember every place that was visited that day, whether this was a normal thing or not, and every person that I saw, that in reality were quite few. I indeed remember every detail of that fateful and horrible day, that has been cursing me for the past centuries, not leaving me at any time, and all because of the terrible consequences that it had and all the unwanted changes that it made on me and on my life, turning it from something perfect and cherished into something quite the opposite, destroying all of my happiness and turning it into revenge and hate, but thankfully sparing some for the immortal being that I am now, cursed to keep on hating what I now am. I remember perfectly how it happened, and I will recall it now once again from where I am sitting in this bar waiting for another mission to be given to me. I will recall it once again even if it breaks my heart in the process, because it is my curse and what drives me forwards. An unbreakable curse that I will never manage to escape from.

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"Luffy! Breakfast is ready!" My adoptive brother Ace shouted late into the morning.

I immediately jumped out of the bed where I had been sleeping peacefully seconds ago now fully awake. I ran down the stairs that led to the small kitchen and living room, nearly falling several times, and then burst into the kitchen with one of my typical huge grins on my face. Ace turned around, looked at me, and chuckled. I soon was sitting on a chair in the kitchen eating the breakfast, while my brother ate his at the same time as me, falling asleep at random intervals as he usually did. We had been living in this house since Ace and I were kids, since Sabo was still alive. I smiled at the thought of those happy days, when we were still very young. Now, 10 years later, I was 17 and my brother 20, and we just lived our life happily in a cottage in a very snowy village during winters surviving each day, unaware of the happenings in the outside world.

As I finished eating my breakfast and being denied more by Ace, who said that we had to be careful because food was quite scarce these days got out of the kitchen and went towards the living room, and lied on top of the sofa, bored. Ace followed me in and sat on the floor right next to where I was lying right now and rested his head on the sofa, near to where mine was, soon closing his eyes although not completely asleep. I looked at my older brother and smiled, feeling heat rise to my face. I shook my head, trying to make the thoughts that had been infesting my mind lately disappear completely. We both remained like this for some more moments, in complete silence, something that was quite rare and was killing my insides, until Ace spoke. "Luffy, I'm going to get some wood and food, do you want to come with me?" Ace asked while still looking at me in that position. I grinned and immediately answered an excited 'yes'. I liked going to hunt and collect food with my brother. I clutched in my hands the medallion that hung around my neck that my brother had once given me during the first birthday that we had spent together, and that he had an equal copy of, liking it's smooth touch.

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We spent most of the morning hunting and gathering wood outside. We had managed to get quite an amount of food by hunting all types of huge wild animals. We would be able to eat a lot of meat in the following days. We were going back to the house, both of us carrying several animals and quite an amount of wood. I felt like I was missing something, but I couldn't remember what exactly that was. It was only when we reached the house that I realised what I was missing, when I want to touch again he medallion that had always hung around my neck.

"It's missing!" I suddenly shouted, nervousness noticeable in my voice.

Ace looked at me, curious and worried at the same time. It was night time already, and some mysterious deaths had been reported lately of several local villagers. "What is missing?" He asked me.

I gulped, and then looked at him. "The medallion is missing! It must have fallen down when we were hunting that bear!" I shouted, before running in the opposite direction that I had been walking through barley minutes ago.

"Luffy! Don't run away!" I could hear my brother Ace shout with evident worry in his voice.

I ignored him, concentrated in finding the medallion. I soon reached the place where Ace and I had hunted that bear, but found that the medallion was not there. "Maybe it fell a bit further away from here" I muttered quietly as I continued walking around the place mindlessly, trying to find the important piece of metal. It was like this that I arrived to a church in ruins, with only one enormous side of the walls that originally composed it still standing, that was surrounded by dead frozen trees. The place had an eerie atmosphere all around it. I continued walking around, ignoring the unnerving feeling that had now appeared deep inside myself and bravely continued walking around, for a moment forgetting the mysterious deaths that had been reported lately, trying to find the medallion.

I shivered. it was getting colder by the minute, and I didn't remember ever seeing this place before. It was as if it had appeared out of nothing. It was then when I heard a voice behind me, right after the snort and a grunt of what seemed to be a horse.

"Have you lost this kid?" I head a man ask.

I turned around, and saw a quite big man with long unruly black hair and a wild but short beard on his face. He was wearing a light coat and a shirt that reminded me of the ones a pirate would wear open in the front, even with the low temperatures in which we were now completely unaffected by them. He was clearly holding something. I looked at it and then recognised it. It was my medallion.

"Yes!" I said, while taking several steps towards the man, with the intention of getting the medallion.

It was circular and of a silvery colour, and it had several roman numerals written on the borders of the circle, outside several drawings in between which a star was clearly recognisable. It was clearly broken down the middle too, but it was visible even without the other half that it was once broken in three pieces. My brother Ace had the other half, and the third part that had once been from a different person had been cut in half and attached to my part of the medallion and the other part that Ace had, that was the same but with different roman numerals and the clear image of a moon drawn on it.

I stretched my arm to get the medallion, but the man took a step back, preventing me from getting the medallion. I was slightly angry by the man's actions. "Give it back, it's very important to me!" I said with a gruff voice.

The man snorted before talking again. "Do you have any idea of what this medallion here means?" He said.

I glared at him, before saying again to the man to give the medallion back. The man laughed again and started muttering something about how stupid I was because of not understanding the meaning of the medallion. I quickly replied. "I don't care about the meaning of it, just give it back!" I shouted again, this time getting into a fighting position.

The man laughed again, this time really hard. "Zehahaha! So you are willing to fight to get this back, aren't you?" He said in a mocking tone of voice "Why don't you come then?" He then added.

I grit my teeth angrily before charging towards him as fast as I could. The man, although clearly strong, was taken by surprise by my attack and was pushed back several metres by the strength of my punch, crushing into a tree. The man now looked angry, and wiped some of the blood that now was dripping down his face from his mouth. He stood up again, and before I could notice the man that was several feet taller than me punched me in the face, making me 'fly' back quite a number of metres, until I, too, crashed into a tree. I coughed up some blood and tried to get up, but before I could the man was lifting me by my winter coat.

"You'll make one fine meal" He said, with a glare full of hate and lust on his face. "You may even could make a good accomplice, but I won't give you that honour" He added. He then pressed me against the dead tree, and with a knife that he had suddenly gotten hold of stated breaking slightly the fabric that was near my neck of the coat.

I struggled, trying to break free from the man's grasp, but was completely unable to do so and I could just stare helplessly at the man as he broke the neck piece of the coat I was wearing and as he prepared himself to do whatever he wanted to do to me. I could only shout my brother's name, wishing for him to save me. I felt what seemed to be two fangs against my neck, not piercing through my skin but touching it. All breath left me and I tried to free myself more strongly, but still with no result.

"Yes, that is right. You are going to be my meal today, and nothing is going to stop me" The man said.

I shouted my brother's name louder this time, wishing for him to save me. It was only seconds later that my wishes became true as the man was suddenly thrown back by a brutal punch that was done by my brother.

"Luffy! Let's get out of here!" He said, as he grabbed my hand and forced me to run off. I felt my head heat up slightly due to the unexpected touch from my brother as we ran away. I heard the man getting up from the snow and muttering something to himself that I couldn't catch, but that probably was curses.

"So you brats are going to run away like the cowards you are?" He then shouted, as he ran towards Ace and me at an incredible speed. He soon was right in front of us. "Are you so scared that you won't even dare to try and take this from me?" The man then said again, with another mocking voice. Ace's look darkened.

"Give it back immediately" He demanded, as he got himself into a fighting position while letting go of my hand.

"Zehahaha! I dare you to take it from me kid!" The man replied.

That was enough to make Ace attack the man. He managed to score some punches on him, but soon it was clear who would win the fight, and that person wasn't Ace. I looked with horror as my brother was beaten by the man, as some of his blood of the wounds that he had received from Ace and his knife dripped onto the ground, before healing completely. Ace's eyes widened as he realised what the man was, right after he opened his mouth again with laughter. He tried to get away, but failed completely and the man soon was pinning him against a tree in the same way that he had done with me. I could only stare as Ace tried helplessly to escape the man.

"That vampire is going to kill us..." I thought, terrified.

I watched as the man tore off Ace's coat and threw it to the ground, leaving my brother with only a shirt. He then opened his mouth, got closer to my still struggling brother's neck and bit into it. I soon heard some sickening gulping noises, that were followed by my brother's voice.

"Luffy... run away" He pleaded.

I closed my eyes, turned around and started running away, terrified by the man, the sickening noise and all of the harsh memories that it brought alongside it. I immediately stopped though when I was quite far away when I saw out of the corner of my eye the man breaking his grasp on Ace. I turned around, and saw the limp body of my body fall to the snowy floor with a '_thud_'.

"Ace!" I shouted. desperately.

The man turned towards me and laughed again while he licked the remaining blood of his chin. I blinked, and when I opened my eyes again I saw the man right in front of me, smiling at me cruelly.

"What did you do to Ace!" I shouted.

The man looked at me. "Zehahaha!" He laughed, cruelly. "I obviously killed him" He then finished saying. I took a step towards me and threw me towards a nearby tree. As he pinned me against me, as he had done earlier with me and seconds ago with Ace. He then opened his mouth, showing his fangs again, and got closer to my neck. I gulped and looked to one side, where I could stills see Ace's limp body. It was then when the man spoke again. "But don't worry, I won't do the same thing with you. You will suffer another destiny" He said, with a cruel smirk again.

I looked at the man as he got closer and closer to my neck, and I soon felt the momentary touch of his fangs against my now cold skin before he sunk them deep into my neck, and started drinking my blood.

I soon felt all life and force leaving me, and I stopped struggling to break free. I could hear, no, I felt him drinking my blood, and it sickened me to no end. I closed my eyes when I felt myself have not enough strength to keep my eyes open, and smiled, remembering my brother. Then I felt the man's fangs withdraw and let his grip on my go, making me fall limply to the ground. I opened my eyes as I barely could and looked at the man with the eyes of a person near death. I saw the man get his knife again and cut his wrist, making blood flow from that new wound. He soon pressed his wrist against my mouth, making his blood enter my mouth and go down my throat. I tried to avoid this, but I soon found this impossible to do due to the amount of blood that was going down my mouth.

I was forced to gulp the blood with the little strength that I had left, and I soon felt a fire going through my being, torturing me with a strange pain that I had never felt before. I heard the man laugh again, and soon felt a piece of metal hit me. I looked at it and saw the medallion that I had tried to get back and due to which all of this had happened.

"Your fate is sealed" The man then said with a cruel and mocking voice.

I twisted around in pain while grabbing the medallion with all the strength I had left. I could feel myself changing, and all my humanity leaving me. I couldn't manage to look up to the man.

"Remember this!" The man suddenly shouted, as he grabbed me by what was left of my coat. I glared at him for as long as I could manage to, which wasn't too much. "I am Marshall D. Teach! Blackbeard!" He started saying. "I will be waiting for you to try and kill me!" He shouted. He then threw me back to the snow and turned away, leaving the scene. I soon lost all conscience and fell into a dreamless sleep that was too similar to death, but still fully aware of my surroundings.

Some time afterwards, I don't know how much it was, I heard the footsteps of a man near me. I opened my eyes slightly and managed to see a red haired man near me. I closed them again, and the last thing that I felt was the man picking me up. Picking the only body he saw up.


	2. Chapter 2

Here is chapter three! Thanks for all the favs and reviews that all of you guys did, and so quickly too! I'm glad that you liked this story! Well, I hope that you enjoy this chapter too! Expect the next one to be done fairly quickly. I also hope that I got the characters good again and not too out of character.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of its characters, Oda-sama does. I do however own the plot of this story

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When I woke up the scenes of the last time I had been awake immediately started replaying themselves on my head over and over again. How I had run off to find the lost medallion, how I had met the man, how he had defeated and killed Ace and how he had turned me into a...

"Vampire" I muttered.

I closed my eyes, feeling tears going down my cheeks as I remembered the scene of my brother's limp body falling to the ground after being drained of all his blood by that monster. By that monster called Marshall D. Teach. I shuddered as I remembered the man, and closed my eyes. Trying to forget everything that happened and to wake up in my room with Ace smiling happily right beside me. I heard myself sniffing, and felt more tears run down my cheeks.

"Ace..." I sad aloud, as I looked around the strange room I was in.

It was quite dull, but the colours seemed quite bright though. My hand went unconsciously to my neck and grabbed the medallion that now hung again from it, like it had always done. It several minutes after waking up that I heard the door that led to the strange room opening up. Soon a red haired man that I vaguely remembered from 'yesterday' entered the room, while carrying some food.

"You seem to be awake at last" He started saying, as he sat down on a chair nearby the bed I was still lying down on "It would be good if you ate something, you must be hungry" He said, with an understanding smile on his face.

I blinked twice, while looking at the man and then looked at the covered bowl that he had brought into the room. I sniffed the food loudly. It smelled nice and it attracted me quite a lot, but the smell had something strange. I then looked again at the man, not bothering to clean the tears that had left faint marks down my face.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

The man smiled before answering. "My name is Shanks, I found you several days ago lying on the snow in the middle of the forest" He explained.

I nodded, suddenly remembering that time when I had opened my eyes for a bit and seen the man. I continued eying him curiously for a bit. There was something strange about him. Something that seemed slightly familiar, unnerving and eerie. I suddenly flinched, feeling as if I was starving. The man handed me the bowl after uncovering it, and I got it, expecting some kind of stew to be in it, but I soon discovered the true contents of the bowl.

I got up to drink the contents of the bowl better and the bowl to my face, not looking at its contents until it was bare centimetres from my face. I looked down, and stared at the red familiar liquid in the bowl. I immediately dropped it onto the floor, causing a red puddle to appear on the floor, and then fell onto my knees, as I an insane craving, hunger and deep repulsion for the liquid that I had just dropped onto the floor. I opened my mouth, showing my fangs, and felt my pupil quickly dilate as I felt the blood-craving monster inside me slowly take control over my actions. I grabbed my neck with one hand and ran out of the dark room, into the other rooms of the house and finally out of the house, where I fell onto the now frozen snow, with my eyes tightly closed and while clutching my neck between my hands as I felt a horrifying pain and hunger go right through me, right before the sense of craving was bigger than ever and lightly retching due to the lingering scent of blood still in the air. I opened my eyes, and I was blinded by the extremely bright light of the sun that hit me directly into my eyes and reflected on the snow. I hissed and closed my eyes and covered them with one hand, while I felt a burning sensation on my skin.

I felt someone grab my arm and pull me inside the house again. I only dared to open my eyes again when I stopped feeling the burning sensation on my skin, and then looked at the red haired man, that had been the one to save me again.

"Don't go into the sun like that again, you will die" He said, with a comprehensive tone of voice.

I stared at him, shocked. He knew what I was, but... he didn't seem to mind? Why was that?

"What are you?" I asked, with a shocked tone of voice "Why do you not mind what I..." I continued asking, not managing to finish the question.

"I know very well what you have just turned into, young man. You were bit by that vampire that was around this village not so long ago and was turned into a vampire" He said, as if it was the simplest thing of the world.

"But why don't you mind?" I asked. It was obvious for me that I now was a monster. A monster like the one that had taken the life from my brother.

"I don't mind, because my father was one of your kind. My father was a vampire, and that makes me a Dhampir. A mixture between a human and a vampire. I know what it is to crave for blood, and how the sunlight can be damaging, but to an infinitely less degree than what you feel." He explained, again as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"So that was why he seemed strange!" I thought as I continued looking at the man, who had another bowl on his hand. I suddenly flinched again as I felt a burning craving sensation on my mouth and that, that commanded me to drink the blood that was now essential for me to survive.

The man, Shanks, then brought the bowl full of blood to my face, offering in a commanding way for me to drink the blood in it. I shook my head, and said that I didn't want to drink the blood. Refusing to become that monster that was now inside me. The man pulled my hair from the back of my head, making me stare at the roof of the living room of the house and open my mouth slightly, which was enough for the man to drop some of the blood into my mouth. I felt my pupils dilate extremely fast again, and I then grabbed the bowl by myself and started drinking its contents quickly and desperately, needing it and letting my new nature get in control of me. Letting the monster control me and calm my thirst. I closed my eyes in ecstasy, as I felt the pain in my throat die down and I involuntarily savoured the red liquid.

Several minutes later I reopened my eyes, realising what I had just done, and feeling guilty for liking the taste of the red liquid. I then looked again at the red haired man, Shanks, who was now smiling at me.

"I know it hurts to have done that, but you must accept that you need to do that in order to survive. You do after all feel better now" he said, compassionately.

I continued looking at him, with newly formed tears on my eyes. I felt bad because of what I had done. Really bad. I went forwards and hugged the man that I still barely knew, needing someone to comfort me. I felt him hug me back and pat me several times on my back while saying soothing words to me. I continued crying as I fell asleep on top of the man's shoulder.

I spent the following days walking aimlessly around the small house where Shanks lived in, becoming more and more used to my new form. I didn't speak much, not to say nothing at all. I spent the days going around the room I had woken up in, drinking blood thanks to Shank's persistence in feeding me, since he knew that I wouldn't drink any at all on my own. He behaved nicely to me, something that I hadn't expected at first from the red haired man. He usually smiled at me and tried to make me happier, and he managed to do it for a few moments, but as soon as I remembered what had happened I went back to my first emotional state. The man had also explained me how he had found me. I had been half buried by the snow that time, and apparently about six days had passed since... that. He hadn't found any other bodies nearby. Not even near any dead tree, where I remembered that I had last seen my brother. But that would have been quite normal, since there were many dead trees and the snow was quite thick, apparently. So the body could have been buried beneath the snow. The body could also have been taken away by that man for some sick desire. The red haired man also hadn't felt any presence around the place of any other supernatural creatures, something that he could do since he was half vampire.

It was during these days that I noticed most of the changes that had happened to me due to becoming this. I seemed more elegant, something that was hard for me to notice and that Shanks pointed out. This also seemed to increase with the days. All the hair in my body, except that of my head had fallen off, my body was colder now and the colour of my eyes had changed from its usual black that I was accustomed to a pale silver, that changed to a black colour when I was craving for blood, due to a "massive dilatation of the pupils" as Shanks had put it. I also noticed that my sense were now more acute. My eyesight was infinitely better than what I remembered, and the colours of things were brighter too. I could hear things from a great distance, and even notice the sound of leaves as they fell off distant trees. I could smell things from a far away distance, especially blood, that I could recognise very easily and easily pinpoint what kind of blood it was and to what creature it belonged too. I could possibly too recognise what blood belonged to who, as Shanks had said that I would be able to do.

When I had been growing up with Ace I had heard many stories about vampires. That they couldn't stand garlic and that they didn't have a shadow or a reflection, and I found quite surprised that these were false. I also wasn't affected at all by crucifixes, but sunlight was very bothering and silver things were too. I couldn't imagine how it would hurt to have one of those things to pierce through my body, since my skin itched with just touching a silver object.

Every day Shanks went out to get supplies and several more things, and several weeks passed until he offered me to go outside with him. I immediately accepted his request, as I had spend too much time inside the house absolutely bored. I had even spent some time reading, which wasn't normal at all and was a bad sign too. When I accepted his offer we both immediately went towards the front door of the house, and it was then when I noticed that it was daytime, and as I remembered the pain I felt when I first felt sunlight on my skin.

"But it is daytime, I can't go on without the sunlight..." I started saying

Shanks looked at me and laughed. "If you go outside wearing nothing to cover your skin like you did last time obviously you will feel pain and could ultimately die from too much exposure to sunlight, but that won't happen if you cover yourself" He explained, as I nodded. He then looked around the room and pointed at some black clothes that were on a corner of it, on top of a chair. "Put those on, they will protect you" He said.

I nodded and decided to put the clothes on. The clothes seemed like some kind of thick coat, robe or cloak, and they covered my whole body. There also was quite a large hood, that I immediately used to cover my face. When I had finished putting the clothes on Shanks smiled and went outside, and I followed him out. I was surprised when I didn't feel the pain I had felt the first time I had gone outside, and grinned because of this. As if this was contagious Shanks did this too, and pointed in a direction and told me to follow him.

We soon arrived to the village I was so used to, that was several kilometres from the cottage my brother and I had been living in for such a long time. It pained me to see everything again without my brother. Shanks and I first went towards a person that sold meat in what seemed to be a very old shop. Shanks ordered quite a lot of meat and the man hurried to deliver the order to Shanks. When we had gotten all that we wanted we proceeded to go to many other stores, buying so many things that I didn't remember by the end what exactly we had bought during the day. When all of this had finished Shanks and I went towards the only tavern in the village, and he ordered some sake for both of us. Shanks drank immediately, but I eyed it suspiciously until Shanks assured me that I wouldn't be drunk just by drinking the liquid, since I was a vampire.

I first took a sip, becoming adjusted to the liquids flavour, but I soon started coughing. It didn't taste as good as blood. Shanks only smiled.

"You'll become adjusted with time to eating things other than blood, but remember that only blood will satisfy your hunger" he explained.

I nodded, and then continued drinking a bit, becoming slowly adjusted until my body didn't react to the liquid that wasn't the one it continuously asked for. We both were silent for some seconds, but Shanks then broke the silence by asking me a question that I knew he had wanted to ask for quite a while.

"I'm sorry to ask this to you so suddenly, but I've been wondering for a , what exactly happened to you?" He asked.

I gulped, and took a deep breath before thinking if it would be safe to tell him everything. I took another breath before I started explaining the red haired man that I had become friends with in the past weeks what had happened to me all those days ago and about that man and my brother. When I finished Shanks looked impressed at me.

"Did you say Marshall D. Teach?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yes". I said, confidently.

"And he is waiting for you to get your revenge?" He then questioned again.

I nodded again, confirming for the second time Shanks question, that he had said earlier on too.

Shanks then frowned and went into deep thought for several seconds. "I wonder why would that man do that" He said. I was surprised by this.

"Is he that known?" I asked.

Shanks nodded. "Yes, he is a famous vampire out there. He used to be part of the vampire clan of whitebeard, but then killed one of them and went away to form his own. Rumours say that he is searching for something big, but I don't know exactly how" Shanks explained.

"Oh" I said, as I thought about what he said.

I then noticed Shanks looking at my medallion with a knowing face. "Luffy, where did you get that from?" He asked.

I was surprised by this question, but I soon explained that my brother and I had both parts and that he had given himself, me and another now deceased adoptive brother a part of it. "My brother had the other half" I said, as I finished explaining everything.

"I see" Shanks said, before getting up from the table where we had been talking for quite a long time. We then went outside. I didn't have to pull my hood up because I had had it over my head the whole time I had been in the village. Shanks then turned at me.

"You are bent on getting revenge on that man, aren't you?" He asked me.

I nodded, and immediately said yes.

Shanks grinned. "I will then show you something, Luffy. Come with me, this will be quite important for you" He said.

I nodded again and I started following him around the village.

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Unknown POV:

I slowly opened my eyes, feeling an intense pain go right through my body. I felt different, but why? The first thing I saw was a man with spiky blonde hair.

"I see that you are awake" he said.

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And so chapter 2 comes to an end! Congratulations for all of you that guessed who the red-haired man was! I had some difficulties in thinking how to add him into the story, and I will say that he will have a slightly important role, at least in the start. As for later I'll see. I also didn't know if to make Luffy know him from before or for him to be a complete stranger, but in the end I decided I'm to be the latter, since both knowing each other from before would be quite bothersome, you'll see why. You'll also see in time what happened to Ace! You just wait! =D


	3. Chapter 3

Here is chapter 3! Thank you all for all of your reviews, favs and alerts! I really appreciate them ^_^ Well, I hope that you enjoy this chapter too and that I wrote each character correctly!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of its characters, Oda-sama does. I do however own the plot of this story

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Unknown POV:

I continued staring at the man with the blonde spiky hair, wondering who he was, where I was and where was my little brother. It took me a moment to realise and remember what had happened. That man had killed my...

"Who are you? and where am I?" I asked the man with a nervous frown.

"I am Marco, and don't worry, you are in the headquarters of the whitebeard vampires" He said with a chuckle.

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I continued walking behind Shanks, turning at every corner that he turned at. We had already been walking for quite long, but he didn't stop moving once and always turned around and around, knowing perfectly where he was going to. I couldn't even remember the village being this big or these streets existing, had we gone to another village while I wasn't paying any attention?

"That is unlikely, since the closest village to this one is many kilometres away" I thought, as I continued following the red haired man. It was already night time by when we arrived to the place I supposed that he wanted to show me, but why?

I watched Shanks with interest, as I noticed him discreetly going towards a small fountain right beside the wall of an abandoned house. When he was only a foot away from it he started touching everything that the fountain was composed of, until he found what he had been looking for. I saw him press a part of the fountain and soon the sound of heavy machinery was heard, along with a small vibration of the floor. In no time the fountain sunk into the ground and to one side, leaving a 'hole' for us to enter. Shanks looked at me, told me silently to follow him and entered the hole. I immediately entered right after him. I started going down a metal ladder and slowly descended into the most absolute darkness, right before the fountain went to its original place again when Shanks touched something again.

When I finally felt myself touching the ground I heard Shanks touching something, and soon the corridor that used to be completely dark was slightly lightened by a series of lamps that had somehow got on. Shanks started then walking through the corridor again. I continued following him, while I looked at all of the doors mostly made now of rotten wood that were on the sides and several other corridors that took somewhere else. A few minutes after entering the place we arrived to an enormous door made of wood in a very good state.

"Follow me inside" Shanks told me with a serious face.

"Okay" I said as I nodded as he opened the door and went inside, and then entered the room too, taking off the thick clothes that covered me.

Once I was in the room I noticed that it was completely dark too, but I could sense the presence of many other powerful people inside the room, that were all staring at the unknown person that had just entered the room. Me. The lights went on, and soon one of them talked.

"Shanks, who did you bring with you?" He asked. "I sense that he is not precisely a human" He added then.

Shanks stared at the man with a serious face that I hadn't seen in all the time that I had been with him and easily replied. "He isn't a human, but he is not with them either" He said.

The man that had asked the question nodded and soon fell silent, not knowing what to say. Shanks then turned around and looked at me.

"Luffy, this is the place that I wanted to show you" He said. I nodded, as I expected him to continue talking. Shanks breathed in and out several times, studying my reaction before he continued talking. "You already know that vampires exist, don't you?" He asked

I nodded, wondering where he wanted to go with this. It was obvious that I knew that vampires existed.

"It is important you know that these vampires don't just go around the world completely alone, they are divided into a number of groups governed by several main groups. The pirates are governed usually by three main groups, known as the 'Whitebeard vampires', the 'Kaido vampires and the 'Big Mam vampires'. All of these groups meet from time to time to discuss the aims of the vampires, but in the end they all have different aims from each other and don't always defend each other's groups. Even though the three groups can be very united if some danger to the vampires appears. The final thing about the vampires is that not all of them follow the leadership of these groups, but go off on their own, join the government, us or simply stray off on their own, depending on what they want to get." Shanks said. "Then we come to play. We are known as the 'Hunters Association', and we are dedicated to hunting and killing vampires that pose a threat to humans and the values we protect. One of them is that human life is reserved, something that many don't do. We also dedicate ourselves to resolving the mysteries of the past" Shanks explained. He took a deep breath in before continuing with the explanation. "Then there is the third and final group is the government, that I have already mentioned before. They are against both the vampires and the hunters, and want to preserve the state of things as it is right now, with constant attacks, and themselves in power. However they have employed to do this a group of strong vampires, humans and other races" Shanks said, finally finishing his explanation. I nodded, signalling him that I have understood. He then took another deep breath. "You are currently in the Hunter's Association's headquarters" He then added. "You earlier told me that you had been attacked by Blackbeard and that you wanted to defeat him, this is why I brought you here. Would you be willing to join our organisation?" Shanks asked.

"Yes" I answered confidently.

"Why would you do that?" Another man said "You are a vampire!" He then finished saying.

I felt a slight amount of rage build up inside me. Shanks sensed this and tensed a little. "Vampires are monsters" I easily replied.

The man looked impressed at me. "But you're a vampire!" He shouted.

"So? I was turned into one against my will by a monster, and my brother was killed in the process" I started saying with a serious tone of voice. The man gasped, not expecting this. "Joining is the most logical thing to do for me to destroy that man and all of the other monsters that are like that. I also wouldn't be accepted in their group due to my ancestors" I said. Shanks looked surprised at me then, but I saw in his look that he would ask me later about that.

"Well, that is enough. Luffy, you would make a good member of us hunters" Shanks said. I could hear some other men inside the room nodding in approval with Shanks. Even the man that had asked me that earlier was nodding.

"Very well, it's time to do the next step then" A man said "Lead him to the next toom" He finished saying.

"Luffy, follow me" Shanks then said, as he went towards a smaller door in a corner of the room.

I nodded again and started following him. into the other room. It was small, but had a nice warmth and was well illuminated by artificial light. All of the walls were occupied by bookshelves full with all kinds of books. Shanks then got a paper from somewhere in the messy room, sat on a chair in front of the big table in the middle of it, and told me to sit down too. I did so immediately and then Shanks told me that I had to put my details into the sheet of paper and the sign. I soon did so, and soon I was another member of the hunters, another hunter. Shanks put a hand over my shoulder and grinned, something that I ended up doing too. It was several minutes later when he asked me something again.

"Luffy, when you said that the vampires wouldn't accept you why was that?" He asked me.

I looked at him, still with that smile painted on my face. "My father was Monkey D. Dragon" I simply said "I was told once what he did and how he ended, so it would be obvious that the vampires wouldn't accept me" I said.

Shanks was surprised. "So you are the son of the former leader of this organisation and the infamous best hunter there was?" He said, with a grin.

I nodded. "Yes, but I never got to meet him" I explained "My grandfather told me once the whole story, before he left me in this village. My mother disappeared right after I was born and left me with him" I finished saying.

"By your grandfather you mean the great hero of the government? Monkey D. Garp? The one that also captured the famous king of the vampires?" He said.

I nodded again, as I looked around the room. I remained silent, surprisingly, for quite a long time, and Shanks did the same. After some time Shanks asked something again. That took me by surprise.

"Luffy, what is your dream?" He asked.

I grinned a bit at first before replying. "My dream is to become the best vampire hunter in the world, to crush Blackbeard and most of all to bring my brother Ace back" I easily answered with another grin. I knew I was going to do it! I was going to do everything and more"

Shanks then got up. "Then keep this hat safe, and give it back to me when you're become the best hunter and realise your dreams, and give it back to me then" He said with a huge grin, as he put his straw hat on my head. I smiled at this, and looked as Shanks went towards a small door on a corner of the room, opened the door and went inside. I got up too and followed him into the other room, looking around curiously. it was a room barely filled with anything, and it only had a small table and a chair in the middle of anything with several objects on top of it.

"Luffy, I will give you now the objects you will use as a vampire, but don't use them yet. I would like to teach you how to use them and different techniques" Shanks said. I nodded and went forwards.

On the middle of the small table there were several types of weapons, and also a machine similar to the ones used to make tattoos. He then pointed at the table. "Luffy, you should chose one of these weapons. Choose the two that you are most comfortable with.

I went towards the table and saw a display of different weapons of all type, even some that I had never encountered before. I looked at each one of them. A sword, a knife, a dagger, a bow... until I finally knew which ones would be perfect for me. "That gun and that dagger" I said. Shanks grinned.

"I knew you would chose those" he said. "Feel free to get them now" He said.

I immediately did this, and soon I was holding a silvery gun and a dagger with a silver blade.

"Luffy, the blade of that dagger is made of silver, so be careful. The gun shoots silver bullets. So be careful too with that. Remember that silver is the only thing that damages and can kill a vampire" He said. I only nodded.

"Luffy, now it is time for you to have a tattoo that recognises you as one of us" Shanks told me. I nodded. "You can chose the tattoo too" Shanks said, while pointing at another point of the room. I went towards it, and saw a long list of drawn tattoos. One soon caught my attention. It was a simple one of am 'X'. I soon told Shanks that I wanted that one, and Shanks called another man into the room to do me the tattoo.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It seemed like hours until I had finally finished getting the tattoo. It had to be done in a special way, that would make it different to ones made normally, and that was why it took so long. Shanks then told me to head earlier than him towards the house that I had been in the last weeks, carrying a bit of what we had been shopping, since he had to finish several things and discuss something with the second man in command.

I was now walking through the frozen streets of the village, completely covered by the clothes Shanks had given me earlier and carrying the straw hat he had just given me, as I looked at the rising sun. I walked for quite long through the streets with barely any people. This part of the village seemed to be almost completely deserted, and I could feel strange presences from all around me, looking at me in fear. It was several minutes later, when I was remotely closed to the house where I had been staying that I saw a wounded green-haired person that seemed to be of about my age lying on the snow, tainting it dark red. The smell was attracting, but it wasn't the same smell that I had grown accustomed to. This one had a more 'canine' thing to it, and it seemed wilder than the other smells. I ran towards the person and shook him several times. He had an enormous gash on his stomach that didn't seem to heal at all.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

The man barely managed to open his eyes, and didn't answer at all. he tried to push me away, while muttering something similar to "Vampire" that I didn't entirely catch. However, he didn't manage to do this and I soon was inspecting the wound. I immediately knew what had caused it just by slightly touching it. t had been done by a silver weapon, and it slightly stung me. The blood continued bleeding and bleeding, not stopping a bit. I tried to get him onto my shoulders to carry him to the house and help him, but I was interrupted when I heard some footsteps behind me.

"Why do you bother, you are one of us?" A strange man, probably a vampire by his scent, said.

I glared at him. "He is wounded" I stated.

The man laughed at me. "So, he is a disgusting creature" He said, as he drew a silver sword out of nowhere and prepared himself to attack.

"You are more of a monster that he is" I said angrily

The man laughed again. "You haven't got a single idea of what that man there is" He said, as he ran towards me, prepared to attack me.

"No, but I know what you are" I immediately replied, as I got into a fighting stance.

The man tried to attack me with his sword, but I quickly managed to punch him on the face, successfully sending him several metres back and into the wall of another house. I was surprised by how much my strength had increased. I was a lot stronger and quicker than before. I then walked calmly towards the man, while drawing my own silver dagger.

"You... traitor..." The man managed to say. "You joined the hunters" He then finished saying with a disgusted tone of voice.

I heard blood drip from his mouth onto the snow, and I felt the monster inside me grow stronger and stronger. I then grinned, as I felt my pupils getting wider. And then I knew that the monster had taken control of me, and I didn't even try to stop this from happening. I was fine by the fate that the monster had chose for this man.

"You don't deserve to live" I then said, with a very serious tone of voice.

I saw the man flinch, clearly scared by how I was now acting. I grabbed stronger the dagger, and pointed it at his neck as I got closer to his face. I opened my mouth widely, showing my fangs, as I started whispering into his ear.

"You don't deserve to live... because you don't respect other beings. You are... a monster" I said, before I bit into his neck and started drinking his blood. It had a strange taste, but it didn't feel disgusting, but sweet and welcoming. I then wondered if Blackbeard's blood would taste like that when I killed him. I soon finished though, and I then sliced his neck with the silver dagger, sealing his death fate.

I walked back to the green haired man and grabbed him. He was unconscious now. I then got hold of the shopping bags again and went into the house, with silver eyes again.


	4. Chapter 4

Here is chapter 4! Thanks for all of the favs and alerts! You guys are awesome! =D I hope that you like this chapter too! I certainly did enjoy writing it =3

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. Oda-sama owns it

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Several days passed until he woke up. I had been in charge of taking care of him, since Shanks had gone away to take care of some matters that he hadn't completely explained to me. All that he had said was that he would be gone for quite a long time and would send me some information when my first mission was decided. Right now the green haired man was lying on a bed, sleeping after waking up for a few seconds. He looked peaceful and careless while sleeping, and I was looking at him with interest and curiosity, but you could tell that he was slightly pained by his wounds made by silver weapons. It had taken me some time to figure out what he was, surprisingly, but when he had seen him Shanks had explained me what he was. I was after all new into all of this', and I didn't know much about the other races.

When the green haired man had woken up he had questioned me again on why I had killed the other vampire and saved him instead. It didn't make sense, due to what I was, and I knew perfectly. However...

"I won't join those monsters" I muttered quietly to myself, while I thought of Blackbeard. I couldn't stop thinking about it lately. Several weeks had passed, but... the memory was still fresh in my mind, and I wondered how much time it would be like that. I then remembered what I had said to Shanks yesterday, when he had asked me what was my 'dream. I had said that I wanted to crush bring my brother back, crush Blackbeard and become the best vampire hunter in the world. And even though I knew I had said those things quite quickly, but now that I thought about it I could only realise more and more that what I had said was true. I did want to bring my brother back, at whatever cost that I would have to pay, even if it was my life and I also wanted to become the best vampire hunter. I wanted to become the best vampire hunter so I could crush Blackbeard and to avoid more things like what had happened to me and my brother Ace. I wanted no more humans to suffer what I had suffered. Suddenly some words brought me out of the deep thoughts that I was having.

"Oi,are you listening to me?" The green haired man asked.

I looked at him, not getting what he was referring to. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention" I said, as I passed my hand behind my head.

The man sighted, looked around and then continued staring at me. "I asked who were you" He said, clearly a bit annoyed.

"Oh! I am Monkey D. Luffy!" I said, with a grin now on my face. I liked this man, he was funny. It took some time for me to realise that I hadn't asked this man's name though. "And who are you?" I then asked back.

The man suddenly grinned. "I am Roronoa Zoro" He said easily, with an ever so light smile on his face. "Do you have food?" He then asked "I'm hungry" He finished saying.

I nodded. "Of course!" I said, with a grin. "There is something on the kitchen" I said. The man then got up with a groan, clearly not liking the feeling of the wounds that even though mostly healed still affected him quite a bit. Well, considering what he was it wasn't a surprise. Silver was even more lethal for his kind. I continued going to the kitchen, with Zoro going behind me, paying attention to every move I made, making it seem that he was afraid to get lost inside the house. When we arrived to the kitchen it just took some seconds to start eating the meat that had been brought to the house by some members of the hunters association. We both were silent for some time, until the green haired man, Zoro, decided to ask what he had already asked when he had been awake esrlier and what hadn't had a response yet.

"Why did you save me, Luffy?" he asked then

I grinned, knowing now my reply. "Why shouldn't I?" I asked then

"You are a vampire. I am a... werewolf, and you killed another vampire" He said. "It makes no sense" he finished then saying.

"I am a vampire, but I am not a member of any vampire group. I am not a... monster. Or so I hope. I can't forgive those who believe they are superior and just want to kill other races" I said, with a serious face.

"Why is that?" Zoro then asked, with an interested face. He clearly was surprised by my actuation, and also by the fact that I was calling my very own race "monsters".

"I was transformed several weeks ago by a vampire named Blackbeard" I started saying, noticing how Zoro continued looking at me. "It was all an accident, really. It was night time and I was searching for something very important to me that was given by my brother. Suddenly that man appeared and when he was about to kill me my brother appeared to defend me" I continued explaining. "He ended up killing my brother when he tried to defend me and converted me into a vampire saying that he would wait for my revenge " I finished explaining.

"I'm sorry" Zoro then said, with a sad, comforting smile.

I looked at him and managed to smile again. "But I will manage to show him that he didn't do the right thing. I will defeat him and take my revenge, by becoming the best vampire hunter out there. I will manage somehow to bring my brother back too, even if it costs my life. I am not defeated, and will never be" I said confidently.

Zoro grinned at my outburst. "I want a similar thing as you, Luffy" He started saying.

I looked at him with interest, waiting for him to continue explaining what had happened to him.

"I had always been training as a kid by a good swordsman, along with several other kids. One day, my main rival suddenly died because of a disease, and since then I continued getting better and better, just wishing to be the best swordsman in the world. Until suddenly, one day, when training during the night a werewolf man appeared and bit me and converted me into this" Zoro explained. "I want to get revenge on the man for doing this to me, but I still want to become the best swordsman in the world though" He finished saying.

I then grinned. "We would make an excellent team" I commented. Zoro grinned at this "The best swordsman in the world and the best vampire hunter in the world fighting together" I said again, grinning.

"Yes" Zoro then said, with another grin on his face.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

We spent the next weeks simply training and fighting each other viciously. We had more or less the same strength, his more brutal and vicious than mine due to his nature, but mine quick and deathly due to mine. We started to become stronger and stronger, and Shanks sometimes came by to visit, but he had to complete now many missions. he only said to contact him if anything happened. It was also during this time that Zoro decided to join the hunters too, and decided to put on the same tattoo on the same place as I had, as a symbol of being friends and comrades. It was during this time too that we learnt more about the structure of the hunters association. There as a central council, which was represented by the leaders of the teams formed by the members of the association. Each team was formed usually by a few people, and were assigned missions together. Depending on their strength the level of the missions varied.

Exactly three weeks later after I had found Zoro Shanks gave us our first mission: we had to go to an ancient church to get information on several scriptures written there. The place had been recently a point of interest for the vampires and there was surely something of importance there. The 'church' was several kilometres away, near another village.

We started going towards the 'church' very early on the morning after receiving the mission, fully prepared to fight anything or anyone to complete it. It was cold, very cold, and it didn't stop snowing ain any moment. The sky was covered by dark clouds, making the whole forest we were travelling through seem gloomy and more dangerous and dead than it walready as. But on the good side it meant that I wasn't bothered as much by the reflection of the sun as most of the time, even with the heavy robes that I carried outside now, and it also made travelling more comfortable.

Hours passed until we finally arrived to the village that was close to the 'church' we had to go to to do the mission. There were many people walking around, even it was extremely cold, and they were all carrying on with their lives without caring much about the two strangers that had entered the village, going into and out of bars and shops with their families. Only some bored people that were completely alone took notice of Zoro and I and of the strange atmosphere that we seemed to have around us, which didn't seem to surprising considering what we were.

We continued walking and walking, until we arrived to a frozen lake a bit far away that was near to the ancient building we had been assigned to look at to find those scriptures. When we were near both of us could smelt the presence of other beings. I grabbed Zoro by his hand, telling him silently to stop. He quickly turned around to look at my face, covered by the thick clothes and that straw hat I wore.

"You have smelt them too, haven't you?" I asked him. He nodded. "There is quite a number of vampires inside that place, as expected. But there are also several humans too" I said again.

"I know" He said. But what are they doing there?" Zoro asked.

"I don't know, but we will have to be careful" I said. Zoro nodded, and we continued walking towards the place, hiding ourselves as much as possible.

It was when we were near the entrance when we found two humans guarding the entrance completely asleep. We both took a step towards them, and they soon woke up, sensing our presence.

"Who are you?" One of them asked, with anger and fear visible in his face.

"That doesn't matter" Zoro said, as he drew his three swords and quickly defeated both men. "We can go in now" Zoro said, as he went inside.

I nodded and went inside too, looking at the dark passages that were inside, dimly lit by a few lights. I would have barely been able to see anything if I was a human, but I was quite able to thanks to my vampire senses.

"I can barely see anything" Zoro suddenly commented. "It's good that I have a powerful smell and hearing senses" He commented.

I grinned and nodded. "Just don't get lost" I commented. I had learnt during the past weeks that Zoro got lost too easily.

We started walking through the long corridors, encountering some vampire or human guards sometimes, all apparently bored. There didn't seem to be much activity, but I could sense the presence of a powerful being below us, in what should be the main chamber of the place and were the scriptures were. I felt strange, and Zoro did too. This was supposed to be a very delicate mission and something of great importance to the vampires, but there were humans inside the place too, and no one seemed to have really detected us. What was happening here?

About an hour passed until we reached what seemed to be the main chamber, where the scriptures where. To enter it we had to open a door, but we could both sense the presence of many vampires and humans at it's other side, waiting for us.

"So that is where they were!" Zoro said, as he got prepared. "Luffy, we have to carefully plan what we are going to-" He started saying, but stopped when he realised that I had just gone ahead and opened the door to fight. He grit his teeth and then rushed forwards to start fighting with the vampires and humans.

They were mostly trained only a bit in fighting. You could tell that they weren't too powerful by how quickly they fell. At first there was quite a number of them, but since there weren't any reinforcements soon the room had only three vampires inside it and then another powerful-looking human. When the three vampires had quickly been defeated by me and Zoro we turned to the human.

"Why is a human like you here?" Zoro asked. "Are you from the government?" He said to the human dressed in red clothes.

"That doesn't matter... wolf" He said in a cocky tone of voice.

Zoro grit his teeth and charged forwards. I did the same, trying to attack the man. But soon I found that he had blocked both of our attacks.

"You aren't entirely human!" I suddenly said, realising. "You are part Dhampir!" I added, in realisation. The man grinned evilly.

"Indeed. Quite accurate from you, vampire. I wonder why are a vampire and a werewolf, especially a vampire, helping the hunters, and I also sense in you a dark origin just by looking into your eyes. I wonder where you came from... but I can't waste time here." He said, as he suddenly threw us backwards and he ran into the door. "I'll just tell you two interesting pieces of information though, since you managed to g t here" He started saying, suddenly stopping right in front of the door. "This place is going to autodestruct in no time. It must be of interest to both of you, since I know that you came here for the same reason as I" he finished saying, before he went outside.

"We must be quick!" I then shouted. "Zoro! bring out that machine the hunters gave us to record images!" I said again. Zoro took it out and started taking pictures of the scriptures quickly. I noticed a drawing of the same medallion that I wore, only in the drawing it was complete. I wondered then how important it was and why, and then realised that it had been visible the whole time we had been fighting at the man from the government. Soon enough though, we were outside of that place, just before it blew itself up. We then started making our way back towards the hunters association to tell everything that we had discovered and the images of the scriptures

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In another place:

"Sir! This way please" a low ranking member of the government said. The man in red nodded, following the man that was leading him to where the other two leaders of the government were. When he arrived to that place he was instantly greeted by two other men of equal incredible strength.

"Akainu, tell us. What have you discovered in those ruins" One man, dressed in white asked.

The man with the red suit grinned evilly. "The prophecy exists, and there is a very important object related to it, some kind of medallion. But I also found out another very interesting thing" He said.

"What was it?" Another one of the two men asked.

"That apparently that object is divided in two, and a hunter has it" He started saying.

"How do you know" Another one of the two men present asked.

"Because the hunters had sent two men to get the information, and one of them had half of the object. However, that isn't the most interesting thing of all of this" Akainu said, as the other two men looked at him with interest. "The most interesting thing is that that hunter is a vampire, and there was something strangely familiar about him" Akainu said. The other two men grinned, understanding what Akainu meant.

"I wonder what the vampires have been up to then. That young man is going to be quite dangerous then" One of them said, before all three laughed.


	5. Chapter 5

Well, here is chapter 5! I hope you enjoy it! More things are revealed here, but things will get interesting after next chapter, you'll see what I have planned. *Grins* Well, thank you all for reading this fanfic, for all your favs and alerts and reviews. They all make me really happy and glad that I'm writing this fanfic! *hugs* Well, onwards with the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. Oda-sama does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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"Shanks, here is what we have managed do decrypt from the scriptures that Luffy and Zoro managed to retrieve as pictures" A man told the red-haired leader of the Hunter's Association.

"Thank you" The red haired man said as he got hold of the man that was handing him a piece of paper with the meaning of those scriptures written on it. It was several pages long and had lots of words written on it. The meaning did seem to be quite long. I started reading through the pages, absorbing every bit of information as I did this. You could tell just by how it was written that the original version was very old too. I suddenly noticed a drawn picture of a medallion. A medallion that was completely identical to the broken one that Luffy had. I read what it put then about the medallion, trying to get something that told me what it really was and its significance. The text mentioned something about its role in a prophecy, but it didn't tell much besides that. it gave some clues as to where that prophecy could be found and some about the medallion, but nothing more. I groaned, unsatisfied by the information that the text had given. Well, at least it had given some information and proven our suspicions that there was a prophecy hidden somewhere that was quite important. We also had managed to get some important information too by just sending Luffy and Zoro to that place. They had found vampires working along government humans. What was going on between those two groups? it was a known fact that the vampires weren't very united, but to start working with the government was another thing.

"It's strange, isn't it?" The man that was second in command and my very good friend, Ben Beckman, said.

"It is. I wonder what the government is planning now. We better be ready for that" I said.

He nodded, agreeing with me. "We have to be. Something tells me that all of this is deeper than we think right now" He then commented

I nodded. "Yes, I feel like that too" I said, with a low voice. I then thought for a moment, deciding what to do. "Ben, call Luffy. I will give him another mission now" I said. My friend nodded and went away.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Some time had happened since we had brought back those scriptures and they had been translated here. Shanks had given me a translation of it, but I soon had realised that there wasn't much information on the text other than the mention to the half medallion that I had and to a prophecy, in which the medallion was closely involved. I hadn't stopped thinking about where could have Ace found the medallion and any hidden meaning that it had, but I hadn't managed to come up with any response for that. None at all. I had spent the days training, like I had already done, but there was something that bothering. I felt as if I was missing something, something important, from the meaning of the text and of the fact that one group of vampires was working with the government. I knew there was some important meaning hidden there, somewhere, but I couldn't get it. I was alone this time, Zoro had gone away to somewhere safe to hide himself during his transformation. It was going to be full moon this night and he would be forced to transform into the beast he really was. I had learnt that he could also transform into a full beast form whenever he wanted, but apparently transforming into that hurt quite a bit. However he gained even better strength and senses. Apparently, the transformation to a half being every full moon was even more painful, and he also lost all conscience and sense of who he really was or his past. I knew he had gone away to make sure that he didn't attack anyone, and I had offered to go with him and keep him in check, but he had told me that he preferred to do it alone.

I sighed and looked at the sky with a look of pure determination, as I remembered my brother. I was going to do what I wanted to do. Yes. I would manage to do it. I would defeat Blackbeard by becoming the strongest and bring my brother back at any cost. "It's night time now" I muttered then, when I realised that the sun was now nowhere to be seen. I looked around for a few minutes, until I heard a scream of pain, followed by another painful howl. "Zoro..." I thought, worried.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I had been here for quite some time, but I didn't know exactly how much. That man, Marco, had been the only one that I had seen yet. he brought me food every day to ensure my survival. But not human food, but that red substance that I mostly refused to drink, which had caused me to become a lot thinner and have less energy. I could still hear the blonde's words mentally. "You have to drink it, or else you will die" He had said several times. I huffed, annoyed by just imagining him saying that.

I sat down on the only bed of the small room I had been in for quite some time. Probably several weeks. I couldn't do anything except lie down, become adjusted to what I now was, ignore the burning sense of starvation on my neck and remember. Remember what had happened then and wonder what had happened to my dear younger brother that I loved so much. I remembered Marco telling me that he had found nothing near me, or rather, felt nothing. He said that he hadn't even seen blood around, or a dead body. So what had happened then? Had Blackbeard killed him and taken his body? Had a wild animal eaten him? I continued thinking darker and darker thoughts, wondering what could have possibly have happened to my younger brother then. I ended up remembering all the happy times we had passed together, and also those we had passed together when Sabo was still alive, before he was killed by a group of bandits.

When I felt a light blush creeping up my neck I heard several knocks on the door. I quickly shook my head to get rid of all of these thoughts and gave permission to whoever was knocking to ender. It was Marco. Again. And he had another bowl of blood on his hands.

"Ace" he said as he entered, with a happy voice.

I growled and lied on my back on top of the bed, staring at the dark ceiling. I didn't know exactly how, but I had ended up becoming a vampire. I could feel it. I could feel the strange new blood inside me and knew all of the changes that had happened to me. It probably had to do something to do with my father. Yes. it was definitely my father, after all he...

"You better eat this tie Ace" Marco said, interrupting my thoughts. "I know you don't like to, but considering what you are now you know that it is essential for you to have this so you can continue living on. I know you didn't want to become this. Most of us never did, but we all have to go through this at some point" he said, with an understanding tone of voice.

I remained silent for several seconds more, thinking about what he had said. "Marco..." I then started saying, when I remembered something else. "When you found me, are you really sure that there was no one near me?" I asked yet again.

"I already told you Ace. I found no one except you. Why do you ask that?" he then asked me. I didn't know what had gotten into me, but I soon started explaining to him what had happened and every detail that I remembered.

-.-.-.-Flashback-.-.-.-

_It all started when my little brother ran away, when he realised that the medallion that I had given him a long time ago wasn't on him anymore. I knew it was very important to him, and it also was important for me, but it wasn't safe to go out during the night. After all lately quite a number of people had been found dead in the forest, killed by something unknown but deadly. I tried to stop him, but it was no use, and he soon ha disappeared into the forest, going to the same places where we had been hunting earlier. _

_ I ran after him, and tried to find him quickly, but it was no use. It was snowing thickly, and there was barely any visibility. I spent quite a lot of time like this, searching for my brother, and it was quite some time later when I found him, pressed against a tree by a stranger with a knife. He was shouting my name too, and I was surprised that he had been defeated by the man, my brother was after all very strong. I ran forwards and punched the man brutally, causing him to fall onto the snow. I then took my brothers hand and told him that we should get away from there and go to a safe place. I didn't know how, but I felt that that stranger had been the one responsible for the deaths. Soon, the man was right in front of us, and he started mocking us, calling us cowards for not trying to take back the half medallion that my brother had. I shouted at him, telling him to give it back immediately. He dared me to fight with him, and so I did_

_I managed to punch him strongly several times more, but soon it was clear that he was going to win the fight. And so he did. In no time, I found myself pressed against the very same tree my brother had been pressed against before. Some of the wounds that he had, caused by me, were dripping blood onto the snow, but he didn't seem bother. I soon noticed that the wounds were healing completely, as if nothing had attacked him. It was only then when I realised what the man was. That man was a vampire. I tried to escape, with no result, and I saw Luffy looking terrified in my direction, and the man soon tore off my coat, leaving me only with a shirt. He then got closer to my neck and bit me, and started to drink my blood with sick gulping noises. Soon all of my strength left me, but I managed to tell Luffy to run away, and so he did. When the man was finished with me he broke his grasp and I immediately fell on the snow, with no strength left. The last thing I saw was Luffy, shouting desperately my name a bit far away._

-.-.-.-End of flashback-.-.-.-

Marco looked at me surprised. "So, the man didn't give you his blood?" He asked me. I shook my head, indicating that the man had in no moment given me some of his blood. "I wonder then..." Marco started saying "How you became a vampire then" He finished saying. I remained silent. "Ace, who were your parents?" He then asked.

I looked at the floor, wondering if I should tell him my secret. The secret that not even Luffy knew. "My mother was a human, and my father was a vampire" I started saying.

Marco was shocked. "I see! So you were a dhampir all along!" He said, surprised. "That explains a lot of things" he then added. "But Ace, who was your father then?" He asked me.

I gulped, and looked around. Trying to think if I should tell him his name. If I should tell him the name of my father. I remained silent for several minutes, until I decided that I could lose nothing by saying his name to the blonde man. "My father was..." I started saying "Gol D. Roger" I then said, with a low tone of voice.

Marco was shocked. "So you are the son of the... King of the Vampires then?" He asked.

I nodded, but didn't say anything else at all. I was just waiting for his response to what I had revealed.

"Ace, come with me. Whitebeard will want to see you. He also may know who was your attacker" Marco said. I nodded, wondering if Marco had just invented this, and then followed him out of the door and into the cold gloomy passages of where I had been staying.

It was a very big place. There were corridors and passages everywhere, too many rooms, and a decent amount of people walking around. Some that looked at us curiously and some completely uninterested. I could sense too that they were all vampires. Every single one of them was one. "Where exactly am I?" I wondered, as I followed Marco around the place, that was like a massive labyrinth, designed to make people get lost. It was quite a number of minutes after getting out of the room that we arrived to a massive corrdor with only one door, that was huge too. Marco went towards it. He knocked several times and went inside of the door, telling me to follow him closely.

The room was dark, but had several windows on one side. I then noticed that it was night time. There was a very tall man sitting on a big chair in the middle of the room. "Marco, is that the man you found?" He asked, with a deep voice.

"Yes father" Marco replied. "He is here now, like you asked. He also told me several interesting things about himself" Marco added.

I glared at him. I didn't feel as if I could trust the man. I had grown used to Marco after all, but he was a complete stranger. The man then looked at me, and waited for me to start talking. I decided to explain to him what I had told Marco. Every bit. He would be of help afgter all, if everything that Marco had told me was true.

When I had finished speaking the man looked at me with a surprised face. "I see" He said as visibly started thinking about what I had said.

I looked around, waiting for him to say something more. It only took seconds for him to do that.

"I knew your father, kid" He said.

I grit my teeth. "I already told you my name is Ace!" I shouted.

The man chuckled. "And it is a good explanation as to why you became a vampire without receiving any blood from that man after you were bitten. You already had it inside your body." He said. I nodded. I had reached the same conclusion as him. "I also know who that man is" He then added. I was surprised by this.

"Who was he?" I asked, wanting to know the name of the man who had done god knows what to my brother, who was possibly dead.

"His name is Marshall D. Teach. He used to be a member of the Whitebeard vampires, but he killed a comrade and ran away" The enormous man explained.

"Oh" I said, nor knowing what to reply exactly. We were both silent for a few minutes more. Marco was still beside us, completely silent.

"Ace, I presume that Marco already told you about the three main groups found in the world?" The man said.

I nodded. "Yes, he did. he explained everything about the vampires, the hunters and the government" I said.

"Well, you must know that this man is now working probably for the government, but he probably is only interested in is own gain" Whitebeard started saying. "I must ask you now. Ace, do you want to become my son?" He asked.

I thought for a moment. I had heard Marco calling him 'father' several times in an affectionate way. He had even explained to me why everyone that was a member of the Whitebeard Vampires called him that. I had never had a father. Never. The only one that I had was like a curse for me, and had always been. After some thinking I had my reply.

"Yes" I said, confidently, and feeling tears on my eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

Here is chapter 6! Thanks to all for your wonderful alerts, favs and reviews! I'm very glad that you liked this fanfic ^_^Well, I would also want to say that I won't be able to update this story until Tuesday 7th because of two important final exams that I have on Monday and tuesday morning, so i'm srry for that! Expect an interesting chapter 7! Things are finally getting interesting, you'll see ;D Well, onwards with the story =D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of its characters, Oda-sama does. I do however own the plot of this story

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I walked slowly, adjusting myself to the groups of people that slowly walked towards the entrance of the city that I was directing myself to. It was quite an important city too, the one that was the closest to the 'Imperial City', where the main headquarters of the government were located. This was why there was a massive presence of agents of the government, that were constantly searching for the presence of anyone that was too 'different', basically that was a hunter or a vampire that the government wanted dead. I was one of them, and that was why I had to be careful not to bring too much attention to myself. It had taken millions of repetitions from Shanks, Zoro and many hunters to make me remember the fact, and almost getting arrested several times with other not so nice experiences for me to finally starting to follow the rule. Which still made me feel strange and as if I was missing an important part of life every time that I did it. I looked around nervously. There were up to 35 guards around the main entrance, watching for anything out of the ordinary. I mixed myself with a big group of people that were directing themselves to the main entrance, and successfully managed to blend into the group thanks to the vampire kind of grace I had gotten when walking and in all my movements with time. I was surprised, I had managed to blend into the crowd even with the dark heavy robes that I wore to protect myself from sunlight and an eminent death caused the most deadly thing for my kind, and that usually were very noticeable to everyone. I walked through the main entrance, and in between of the 35 government guards that failed to notice me. I felt the urge to laugh directly at them, but contained myself, out of the experience that told me what would happen if they noticed me.

Once I had entered the city I continued walking slowly, mixing myself with different groups of people to avoid catching the any unnecessary attention. The government had increased its alertness in the last years and all hunters and creatures had to be careful now, due to still unknown reasons. I had been like this for the past 810 years of 'life'. I still looked like the day I was transformed into this though. I still was '17 years old', although it wasn't true. Slowly, during the past 810 years I had been walking around the face of earth, I had slowly made myself an infamous hunter, pulled up nearly to perfection my fighting abilities, strength and speed and managed to make the fact that I was a vampire or my real identity completely unknown to all except for a 'select' few that knew who I was. I still wore the same robes that Shanks had given me the day I had accepted to became a hunter, and they continued to be as black as ever. I always wore that straw hat that he had given me that day over the dark and thick hood that always was covering my face, except in very rare occasions, that gave me a strange appearance, but yet a very menacing one to those that had heard of the "straw hat" hunter, as I was called.

I had managed to become one of the top hunters of the organisation and of the world, but I still hadn't managed to complete any of my ambitions and dreams. Blackbeard, as far as I knew, still roamed free around the world, continuously destroying human lives, even with how much I had improved and how deadly I now was, and my brother was still... dead. The memory still haunted me sometimes. The scene when the body of my brother fell limp onto the floor, and he whispered with his last strength for me to escape and get safe. I still 'heard' sometimes mentally a smaller version of myself saying what I had said then "That vampire is going to kill both of us" sometimes, and it gave me chills yet. It terrified me still, what had happened, and most of all, how I had been completely unable to protect what I loved, to protect what was most important to me. My weakness terrified me, and it continued terrifying me. The thought that I was still weak to protect what I loved haunted me, always repeating itself mentally as it tortured me.

The last 20 years I had been training with a vampire that now refused to take part of any group called 'Silvers Rayleigh'. He had been one of the most wanted men during the time he was known as the 'Dark King', as the right hand and closest friend of the 'King of the Vampires' Gold Roger, or in reality 'Gol D. Roger' as he had said to me once. He had accepted to train me when Shanks, who he still talked with some times, had told him about me and my name. Both men still had relations, no one knew exactly why and how. Silvers Rayleigh had accepted to train me when he heard my name. My real name that is. And I couldn't help but wonder why, but I soon attributed it to be because of my father, since he had been quite famous in his time. He had been the "Best hunter of all time" then, or the "Revolutionary hunter" too, that had fought several times with the King of the Vampires several times, all ending in equal draws, before both of them had been killed by the government. Yes, I thought that that was why Silvers Rayleigh had decided to train me and show me strong abilities that only a select few, that included me, could use. He called this 'Haki'. He had also mentioned several times how similar I was at times to the former King of the Vampires, and this surprised me, a lot.

During the 20 years I had been training with him I had become massively stronger by the time I had finished training with him, although I still had to polish my abilities, that sometimes drained a great amount of strength from me. During that time I had become great friends with him, and I considered him now to be some kind of 'teacher'. The training had ended this year too, and I had only done 2 missions for the hunters then, one that consisted of capturing and killing an important vampire of one of the main vampire organisations that posed a threat to the organisation and another one that consisted of retrieving some scriptures that the Kaido Vampires had stolen from the government. After completing it successfully and giving them to Shanks and realising that they were written with poneglyphs, an ancient language that no one in the world except that translator could read. That was why I had to find the translator in this city, to complete my mission. Zoro and I had been separated during the last 20 years I had been training, and we were also supposed to meet here, like we had accorded 20 years ago, in a tavern well known between the hunters.

I continued walking through the streets, looking for the tavern. I didn't remember the name, but I had been there several times though and was trying to remember where exactly it was located, but not managing to do that.

"I wonder where it was" I muttered, as I continued walking through the crowded streets of the city. "I also wonder if Zoro has managed to make his way to that bar" I continued muttering, as I laughed at the thought. The green haired man had the worst sense of direction that I had ever seen.

As I continued walking I sensed quite a number of vampires at some point of the city. I was confused by this, as I hadn't expected so many of them to be in this city. I wasn't bothered though. I knew that if I encountered a group of vampires I would be able to defeat them all. Many minutes passed before I managed to find the bar that I had accorded to meet. It was located in the middle of a small and dirty street. I quickly entered the tavern, feeling the presence of one vampire, who didn't bother to look at me. I quickly sat on a table and decided to wait for Zoro, that who knew when he would come. I decided to order some meat too, that still was my favourite food. It didn't calm completely my hunger, but it did make me feel slightly better by eating it. As I started eating the meat as soon as it was served with an incredible speed, and it soon was finished and I was asking the waiter for more.

I turned around to look as discreetly as I could to the only vampire in the bar. He was doing quite a good job in making himself not be detected by the few hunters that were right now in the bar, me included. I wouldn't even have managed to detect him if it wasn't for my training with Rayleigh. He had blonde hair that covered one of his eyes and a curly eyebrow. He was quietly smoking, and looked around as if he was waiting for someone. He suddenly shot his eyes at me, and by the way he was looking at me he had recognised who I was, the 'Strawhat' hunter. He remained sitting down, eying me suspiciously. It was then when I saw the green haired man that I had been waiting for enter the bar.

"Zoro!" I said excitedly. It had been ages since I had last seen the swordsman.

"Said person smiled at me and sat down right beside me. "I got lost" I heard him muttering as he entered the bar. "How have you been, Luffy?" He asked then.

"Great. That training really did make me better" I said as I looked at him with a questioning look.

"Same for me" he said, with another smile on his face.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the blonde man looking at us with a surprised look on his face, and I wondered why.

"Why is that man over there staring at us?" I could heard Zoro say. He couldn't see him directly due to where he was sitting, that was with his back on the man, but as he had said several times he could 'feel' the stares of people.

"He has been like that for a few minutes before you entered. He may know who we are" I said.

"Oh" Zoro said, as before he ordered something to the waiter that had just brought me some more meat.

It was then when it happened. I saw out of the corner of my eye a vampire enter the bar and sit down on a table, staring right at Zoro with a disgusted look. The man then got up and went towards us. I could still see the blonde man looking at us with interest. When the unknown man was right beside us he got out a gun, that probably shot silver bullets, and pointed it right at Zoro's head.

"You disgusting creature" He muttered, as he prepared to shoot at Zoro, who was staring darkly at the table.

"And what do you think makes you better?" I then questioned the man.

The man laughed, and moved his fingers to shoot at Zoro, when I decided to act. I up and punched the man in the face with an incredible speed, while Zoro got out only one of his three swords, went towards the vampire and delivered him a powerful blow to his stomach, that caused him to start bleeding frantically. All the people inside the bar got up, some screaming and most of them running out. Not wanting to have anything to do with this. Zoro then put away his sword and went towards me. I looked at the man has he bled, the smell of the blood overpowering me, and I could feel that burning and painful hunger in my throat, which made me retch

"It would be best if we went away from here. We have brought too much attention to ourselves now" He said.

I nodded and we started going out of the bar, with Zoro right behind me. I could still feel the horrible thirst and my pupils widening because of that, like I had experienced several times. I stopped myself several times as I almost brought a hand to my neck, trying to stop the pain, but didn't let myself do this. As it would be too much. As I noticed that it was already dark, and I saw a vampire going inside the bar I had been in seconds ago. There was something familiar about him. He was wearing an orange cowboy hat that that didn't allow me to see his face completely, but he seemed familiar. I could see the marl of the Whitebeard Vampires on his bare back too. I shook my head and continued walking towards where the 'translator' supposedly was, not managing exactly to get that man out of my head.

We slowly walked though the town, but not managing to make ourselves not noticed. After that fight everyone seemed to now have eyes only and exclusively to us, thankfully that other bar we had to go to wasn't too far away and we soon reached it. Once we had entered we noticed that there weren't many people inside, just a few humans and a human female with long dark hair and blue eyes that was drinking something. I grinned as I recognised her as one the translator we had to find.

I went towards her, with one of my huge grins and said her name. "Nico Robin?" I said, making her look at me, interested.

"I seen, you are that famous hunter" She said. "'Strawhat', the call you. But I can sense more things in you than just that" She said, with a smile. She looked at my questioning look. "Don't worry, I am a human. I just have learnt to recognise what people are, that's all" She said then. "What do you both want from me?" She asked then.

Zoro then went forwards, and explained what we wanted. "We wanted you to translate this He said, as I handed her the copy of the scriptures that we had found.

She was surprised. She clearly didn't expect that. "Okay, I will immediately translate them for you then" She said, as she took the copy and started reading it. I looked at her as she read it, waiting quite relaxed. I didn't feel nervous or endangered by anything, which was good. But I still felt that painful hunger inside me that didn't leave me alone. I was trying as hard as I could to contain the monster inside me only a bit more, just until I was outside the city. Several minutes later the woman spoke again. "It says 'In the resting places of the old chosen ones you will find them'" she said, as she handed me the copy of the scriptures back. I smiled and thanked her.

"Thanks you, Robin" I said, with a smile, as I turned around and went out of the bar. This time right after Zoro. I could almost feel the woman's smile as she turned around again and resumed her previous drinking, her thoughts a complete mystery.

Zoro and I walked for some time through the streets of the city, as we tried to find the main door. By now I had a hand grabbing my neck strongly, trying in vain to calm my hunger. I was also retching slightly, and I could feel my eyes as being completely black. I knew Zoro noticed this, but it wasn't until we were in the middle of a completely deserted street that he spoke.

"Are you okay, Luffy" He asked, clearly worried about me.

"Yes... I'll be okay" I said, as I continued walking forward, trying to calm my pain and make him not worry about me.

"How much time has it been since you last fed Lu?" He asked me, as he stopped me from walking by putting a hand on my shoulder.

I didn't reply, and instead tried to continue walking, which was impossible with the werewolf grabbing my shoulder.

"You know that you'll lose control and die f you don't feed, Luffy" He said.

"I know! But it's just-!" I started saying, as I finally gave up on trying to escape this.

Zoro then made me look at him, and he pointed at his neck, that was clearly visible with the light shirt that he wore. "Luffy, you know nothing will happen if you drink mine" He said. "Nothing will happen if you don't give me your blood, and I am a werewolf. I will have immediately recovered" he said, with an understanding tone of voice.

"But Zoro, you!" I started saying, but was interrupted by Zoro speaking again.

"You will die if you continue like this, and you know it. You can't torture yourself like this too much time or else you will suffer the consequences. You have already experienced it once and it was not nice" he said, as he brought me closer to him

I gulped. "Is it okay with you'" I asked him

"Yes it is, anorexic vampire" He said, with a calm laugh.

"Thank you, I'm sorry" I said, as I got even closer to his neck and bit into his skin, and started drawing blood, enough to calm me and to not make him suffer any consequences, that had never happened even in my darkest times, due to his fast healing and nature. I could feel Zoro looking away, like he always did, and I couldn't help but feel in debt with him again for taking care of me, like he always did as the best friend that he was.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I entered the bar, and looked only a little to the man with the straw hat that went out of it, followed by another green-haired man that smelled like wolf. I found the man with the straw hat slightly familiar, but I couldn't place him exactly as I hadn't seen his face or anything else. Bt there was something about him that was just familiar. I went towards the blonde man that was sitting on a table, looking at me.

"Narcoleptic episode" I said as I sat down.

"You will never change Ace" The blonde man said, with a grin.

"I saw a strange thing in here" He said.

I looked at him curiously. "What was it, Sanji" I asked him

"Do you remember those two that just went out as you went in?" He asked me.

"Yes" I quickly answered, wondering what he wanted to say.

" They both were hunters, judging by their looks, but there was something strange about them. One of them felt as if he was a... werewolf, and I couldn't exactly feel what the other one was." He said.

"A human and a werewolf?" I wondered aloud.

"No, they got into a fight, and when the one with the straw hat moved I could slightly see his face" The blonde man started saying. "I saw his eyes. They were of a silvery colour, like ours, but his pupils were dilated continuously" He finished saying. "I also noticed him having a scar under his left eye, but that's irrelevant" The blonde man said. "The fact is that by the way he was acting he was a vampire, and a thirsty one by the look of it." He finished saying.

"What is a vampire doing with the hunters?" I wondered aloud, not wondering entirely about that, but by the fact that Sanji had described a person with a scar on the same place as Luffy. Could it be that...?

"I don't know Ace, I don't know. But we better find Marco and the other's so we can discuss what to d next with pops" He said.


	7. Chapter 7

Here is chapter 7! Sorry for the wait, but it is finally here! It is awfully longer than what I expected it at first to be, reason why it is uploaded 'later' than the other chapters (in comparison to the time the others were updated at), and I must admit that I've been tempted to cut this chapter in half and publish the second part as chapter 8, but in the end I decided against that, since it would be strange, at least for me. Well, I liked writing this chapter a lot, but I didn't really like how Whitebeard was shown on a part in this. This being said I hope you like this chapter ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda-sama does. However I do own the plot of the story.

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It had been several minutes, or perhaps an hour, since Zoro had helped me calm my thirst again. I felt guilty, as if I had done something terribly wrong by accepting my best friend's offer. I didn't like doing this. I didn't like consuming blood. It felt as if I was committing a terrible crime, no matter what other people had told me before as they tried to make me accept that fact that I wasn't a human, and that it wasn't a crime to maintain myself alive. Shanks had tried a lot this before, but with no result, and Zoro, Nami and Usopp, along with several other hunters that I considered to be great friends that had also failed. I understood what they wanted to do, and why they wanted to do it. After all it wasn't healthy for me to be an "anorexic vampire", and it made me weaker than what I really was and more prone to suffering more damage in attacks and to have a greater chance to lose control when surrounded by humans, but even if I knew all of this and it's horrifying consequences I still didn't accept drinking blood as something normal, like they had tried so hard to explain and convince me, since it was a crime, a murder. Something unforgivable that involved taking away from another being their innocence and their well being, and possibly their life too. It was something that I couldn't bring myself to accept, as the memory of what had happened to me all those years ago was still fresh on my mind, and the murders of the man that I wanted to hunt were even fresher, he was after all a known individual in this game of immortals, to which I had been included in so cruelly by the man, out of a what I guessed was a strange compassion and thirst for even more destruction of my life, after all of what he had done. The words still sounded in my head, those words that I had told myself mentally all those years ago, and that could still be heard by me.

"_That vampire is going to kill us_" I could hear a voice in my head say again and again as I waked beside Zoro, who was staring aimlessly at the landscape before us. We had managed to get out of the city as undetected as we had both managed to enter it, even with the heavy presence of guards from the government and the even clearer presence of what should be a massive reunion of at least a group of vampires, that was obviously taken as a threat by the government, but that still required an even larger presence of guards to be taken seriously. I couldn't help but wonder why the government had decided to take this as it had taken it, and not put more protection on the city. After all, such a big presence of vampires was a threat to the innocent human citizens of the city. Maybe the government didn't know after all, or had decided that it wasn't dangerous and had instead focused on something else. Whatever it was, it would most likely not affect us, since we were already our of the town and going towards a small village not too far away, where we both would be directed with another member towards the current location of where the leader of the Hunters Association was so we could receive the orders of what we would have to do next after we had told him what we had discovered in that text that that translator, Robin, had translated for us. She was quite a nice person, as I head heard from Nami, who had worked with her several times and was like a big sister to her. She used to be working for the government, but she had escaped a few years ago, and now helped translate any text as she tried to find the true history of the world. She had connections with both hunters and several organisations of vampires, but she was generally to be trusted, as she no longer took direct action on this 'war' that nearly no one could understand.

We waked a long time towards the village where we would meet that other hunter. It was supposed to be not too far away, but we had already been waking for quite a long time. It was already night time, and barely anything could be seen. We were walking through a forest, somehow going in the right direction, and I could feel not too far away the presence of the gigantic beasts of this forest, watching us, hoping one of us would drop his guard and could possible be a potential next meal, something that didn't seem too likely considering what we were, even though the beasts saw us as being quite weak. Soon, it started raining heavily, and our great visibility was reduced even more by it, preventing us to see well around us. I was still heavily covered by the thick and dark robes, and too by the straw had that always was on my head, but Zoro wore light clothes, so he was soon completely soaked and cursing the rain angrily under his breath. I laughed hard and loud at this, which made Zoro turn towards me and glare for quite some time.

"What is so funny, Luffy?" He asked, with a dark undertone.

I continued laughing at the slightly comical situation that had lightened my mood up quite a lot. I then decided hep Zoro not to get completely soaked, since he would suffer more the consequences that I would. Yes, he was a werewolf, and he had a great resistance and wouldn't age. Something that made him almost like an immortal, but he was very vulnerable to wounds if these were too bad, even if he recovered very fast from these, and extremely vulnerable to them if they were made by a silver weapon, that would make those wounds heal a lot slower that they normally would. He also was vulnerable when he had lost quite a lot of blood and to illness, that even though it was assured that he would get better it would slow him down and make him weaker and more prone to attack and suffering from a bad wound than normally. I started taking off my thick cloak, that was helping me remain dry, and gave it to Zoro while I laughed a bit more.

"We can't be too far away Luffy, keep it" He said when I gave him by thick robes.

"You will need them more than I do" I said, forcing him to accept the robes.

Zoro thanked me and started putting them on. Soon, he seemed like a completely different person with the dark robes on, which barely let his face be seen. I was now wearing a simple red vest, blue shorts and the sandals that I always wore. It was quite strange for me to wear these openly, as I usually wore the thick robes that Shanks that given me and head been mended quite a number of times to protect me from sunlight and out of commodity and being used to wearing them. I continued walking forwards, while looking at Zoro

"You look strange" I said, in a happy tone of voice with a goofy grin on my face

"You do too" Zoro said then, with a chuckle. "Thanks, Luffy" He then added

"It's nothing" I then said with a grin on my face as we continued walking through the forest. About half an hour passed until we reached the village we would meet that other hunter. By then Zoro wasn't soaked, contrary to me, that was now completely soaked.

We went towards the village as fast as we could. It would soon be dawn and we wanted to find that hunter before it was daytime, so we weren't discovered or suspected of by the inhabitants of that village and I didn't suffer the consequences of being exposed to daytime, since I didn't want to take the thick robes from Zoro. It was a very small village, with only a couple of houses and a small main street. It was completely deserted, very dirty and muddy, something that made the job of waking through the village more difficult. We soon heard a voice from one of the roofs of the cottages where the humans lived.

"Psst!" The voice said "Up here!" It then added.

Zoro and I looked from where the voice came, and soon saw a long-nosed friend.

"Where were you? It took you ages to get here!" He said.

I grinned. "Usopp!" I said, excited when I saw him. "We went through the forest" I then added, explaining what we had done. I was sure that they had told us to go through there. We hadn't done anything wrong, I think.

"What! That is the longest path towards this village, it is only a one hour walk through the main road" he said.

I laughed, and Zoro glared at Usopp. He didn't like when it was hinted that he didn't know how to get around places. Not a bit.

"Well, follow me Luffy. I will take you to where Shanks is right now" He said, as he jumped off the roof and started waking through several streets of the village. I nodded and started following him.

He soon took us to a street with a dead end, walked to the end of it and then touched the wall on several places. His face brightened up when he found what he was searching for: some kind of button hidden in the wall. He pressed it and soon the wall moved, leaving a clear space for us to go through it. We entered it, and as soon as we had done this it closed again, giving the appearance that it was a dead end again.

"We just have to go forwards now" Usopp said as he started walking forwards through the almost completely dark corridor, which was barely lit by a few dim lights on the walls.

"Here you have again Luffy" Zoro suddenly said, as he handed me my robes. I grinned as I took them and put them on again, but without the hood covering my face and with the straw hat on my back, not bothered to cover my face with both right now.

We walked through the corridor, that turned out to be quite long, and after walking for quite a bit we finally reached an old looking door. Usopp knocked four times, and then opened it and entered the barely lit room. We entered behind him.

"I brought them here" Usopp said, looking at the man that was sitting on a chair, surrounded by some other men that I knew and some that I didn't know.

"Well done, Usopp" He said, as he got up and went towards us to greet us.

The room was dark, but there was enough light to recognise who was talking to us. It was the leader of the Hunter's Association, Shanks. Who was my personal hero and had helped me so much.

"Shanks!" I said with a grin, as he walked towards me.

"I'm glad that you made it Luffy, and you too Zoro, it was been a very long time since I last saw you" he said with a smile. Zoro and I smiledtoo , comforted by the man's attitude. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ben Beckman, which was one of Shanks best friends, along with Yasopp, who was Usopp's father and another hunter, and several other people.

"Tell me, what did you find?" Shanks then asked, waiting for us to tell the meaning of the scripture that we had found not so long ago.

"The translator said that it meant "'In the resting places of the old chosen ones you will find them'" Zoro then explained.

Shank's face brightened, along with the faces of several other people that were in the room.

"Then it all makes sense!" A man that I didn't recognise said in an excited way. "It is in their tombs, the way to continue is in their tombs!" he then added.

The other people in the room grinned, happily too. This was quite a discovery

"It is decided then!" Shanks then started saying with a grin. "Luffy! Zoro! You must go to both of their tombs immediately to get the information on what we have to do next!" Shanks added. "Go to the tomb of the 'King of the Vampires' and to the tomb of the 'Revolutionary' Hunter" He finished saying.

We both nodded, and went out of the room throughout another door, prepared to go to where he had told us. It was going to be difficult though, because his tomb was almost a national touristic attraction.

"Usopp, I have another mission for you" Shanks then said as we went out of

the room to the black haired boy.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I quickly followed Sanji out of the bar, like we should have done quite a long time ago, to find Marco, the commander of the first division of the Whitebeard Vampires. I tried to concentrate on the meeting we were going to have. Whitebeard hadn't told us anything, just that all the members of the Whitebeard Vampires should be there, this including all of the commanders, which was very strange. It was not common for Whitebeard to call all of the commanders or all of the members at once, but I, as the commander of the second division of the whitebeard pirates had to be there, willing or not. I couldn't get out of my head what Sanji had told me. Not only was it strange that a werewolf was a hunter, but it was even stranger that a vampire was walking beside a werewolf, both dressed in hunter clothes. It was quite hard to recognise for a normal human, but after some time you learnt to recognise anything. The hunter's were quite hard to recognise, but their silver weapons, in between several other things gave them away. I wanted to believe that Sanji had simply imagined things, but he was very good at recognising these kind of things, and how he had described that hunter was a perfect description for a thirsty vampire. But what bothered the most wasn't the fact that the hunter was a vampire or not, but the fact that Sanji had said that he had a scar under his left eye. This had immediately reminded me of my brother Luffy, who had a scar on that very same place.

I shook my head, and told myself that I was being paranoid. Many people had scars under their eyes, and it had been about 810 years since that had happened, and I hadn't seen my brother ever since. He was most probably dead, considering how much time had passed, and all thanks to that 'man'. I couldn't get this thought out of my head though.

My thoughts were interrupted when I felt Sanji shake me. "Ace, are you listening?" He said with a very loud voice.

I blinked twice, as I realised that I had spaced out, as I usually did. "No sorry. What did you say?"

Sanji grumbled something, visibly annoyed, and then repeated what he had said. "I told you that if you know exactly where the meeting is going to be" Sanji said again.

"Oh, no. I was simply informed to find Marco. He would know" I said, repeating the words that pops had told me via a letter several days ago.

"We'll have to find him then" Sanji said, still visibly annoyed because of the lack of information.

I nodded and we started walking through the streets, following out instincts and going towards where we felt the familiar presence of several other vampires of our 'crew' that we recognised or simply were familiar with. With time we had learnt how to recognise and 'feel' or 'detect' the presence of the vampires that were part of the Whitebeard Vampires just throughout how their presence was. It was difficult to get used to, but after some time you learnt how to recognise between how each individual vampire's presence was and to detect it at a great distance. There were ways of 'hiding' this presence that every vampire had, but this was not very common to do, and it was frowned upon by many vampires.

The town was full of all kinds of people, as was to be expected of the town that was so close to the Imperial city, where the government's main headquarters were detected. There were many merchants, promising people magical objects and legendary potions that cured and gave virtually anything that you could imagine. There were many guards walking throughout the streets, and even though it was night time already the streets were still full of people walking, buying things, guards and many other people, included some other people with a dangerous atmosphere around them. Many of these were just sitting on the sides of streets, staring at individuals as they passed and whispering to each other when they saw someone that looked like a 'big fish' walking through the streets. As Sanji and I walked through the streets many of there whispered to each other while looking at us, recognising who we were, or who I was. Most of the faces of the division commanders were known to those that wanted to get money from the government by capturing us, after all of the division commanders would have a bounty on their heads high enough to make any person drool at the thought of having that money. The different hunters also had bounties on their heads, since they were also not particularly liked by the government either. This was enough to make these people randomly attack you in the streets to try and defeat you, something that never happened.

We had turned left on a street when we finally noticed a big group of these people walking towards Sanji and me, with several weapons on their hands, some of which were made of silver through the middle of the street.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" One man, who seemed to be the leader of the group, said with a small arrogant laugh that made the other men laugh too.

I ignored them, and started waking towards them and past them, not bothering to fight these men. We wanted to get as soon as possible to where the meeting was going to be.

"Don't ignore me, 'Fire Fist' Ace and 'Black Leg' Sanji!" The man then said. "We're going to kill you like the monsters you all are and get your bounty!" he then said. "Men, attack!" The man then shouted

"Not again" Sanji then muttered. "This is why I'm sick of travelling with you Fire Fist" Sanji then finished saying as he kicked with his leg the first man that appeared on his path, which caused him to be sent flying to one side and crash against two other men.

I laughed. "Oh, it can't be that bad" I said, as I quickly moved, punching hard several other men, sending them to the floor unconscious.

Soon enough, all of the men were on the floor wither unconscious, too wounded to get up or simply too scared to do so. The leader of the men was shouting desperately at his men, telling them to get up and defend him from the two vampires in front of him.

"All of you! Get up, don't let these two filthy monsters defeat us!" He shouted.

Only you left now" I said with a maniac grin on my face, as I walked beside Sanji towards the man.

The man then gulped. "This is not over!" He shouted before turning around and running away.

I laughed at the man's reaction and continued walking.

"These guys are always so pathetic" Sanji then commented beside me as we both got further and further away from the defeated group of men. "We better find Marco soon though, or the guards of the city will localize us" Sanji then commented.

I nodded, prepared to reply to the blonde man when I heard a voice right behind us.

"No need for that now" A very familiar voice said.

We both turned around and looked at the blonde man with short spiky hear who was now right behind us, with a grin on his face.

"Marco!" Sanji and I shouted at the same time, surprised to see the other man.

"Greetings for later, I have to guide you the where the meeting will be" He said, as he started walking in front of us.

We immediately started following him across several streets, eager to reach the place where the meeting would be. We didn't want to be forced into another fight. We finally arrived to where the meeting would be a very short time after we saw Marco, after walking throughout a labyrinth of streets that made you wonder how on earth Marco managed to remember all of the way towards the meeting hall. Marco walked towards a door that was not very noticeable and that seemed to be locked from the inside, and knocked on it several times, with a distinct rhythm. Soon the door was opened from the inside, and soon another fellow division commander was greeting us.

"About time you arrived here Ace, Sanji" He said

"It's all because of Mr Sleepy Head here" Sanji said, with a mock annoyed tone of voice as we both entered the room.

It was quite a small room, and it seemed to be very well lit, but since it was night time not so much bright light entered the room. Marco then entered the room, and went towards one of the other doors that were inside the room we had just entered. He opened the door.

"Here it is" he said, as he entered the room.

I followed him into the room, followed by Sanji. I looked around me, staring at every corner of the gigantic hall where the meeting would take place. Who knew that these kind of places could be found in towns like these and were barely known by anyone? I walked towards the centre of the room, where there were several chairs, one for each of the commanders. Most of the were already there, the only one that was missing was me and Marco In the middle of the room was now Whitebeard, who was chuckling at something that one of his 'sons' or 'daughters' had told him. There were many other chairs on the room, which divided the members of the Whitebeard Vampires depending on which division each member was. I went towards where I was supposed to sit down and waited for the meeting for start. I was curious about what Whitebeard wanted to tell us all, which was surely quite important. Sanji sat behind me, since he was another member of the second division of the Vampires of Whitebeard, and one of the strongest too. Several minutes passed until the room was full, during which Marco was coming and going from the room. Once all members of the Whitebeard Pirates were present Whitebeard got up to start talking.

"Sons! Daughters!" He said with a very loud tone of voice, something that immediately made us focus completely on him. "I have called you here to tell you all something important, something that may change what we do" he said. I watched the man fascinated, his words and everything he did... was admiring. He was like the father I never had.

"During the last missions over the last years many of you have encountered other vampires from other groups, me included" he started saying again, after taking a short break. I noticed many people nodding, but I couldn't follow exactly what he was going to say, after all I barely met other vampires other than those members of the same 'vampire group' as I. "and it has clearly been seen up until now how these other groups have become more hostile towards us, even attacking us on several occasions. We have also lost contact with the other two groups of vampires after these were supposedly attacked by Marshall D. Teach" he continued saying. He then stopped for a few moments, looking at every single person in the room, scanning all of our reactions. "It is highly possible that we will be attacked soon by this new group, and you must be aware of this. It is also very possible that the government is aiding this group of vampires" Whitebeard then continued saying. My eyes widened, as did the ones of many other people, that were too completely surprised by this. How could the government aid a group of vampires? What were they planning? "This was seen by the commander of the first division when sent to the headquarters of the Kaido Vampires found this group of vampires being attacked by the Vampires of Blackbeard, with the help of the government" He continued saying. I was shocked. I hadn't expected this. "My sons and daughters, it is important that from now you try your best at not being recognised easily, and to be careful with vampires of other groups. Be aware that they will most likely attack you, since nothing has been heard of Kaido or of Big Mam. The next missions will be of great importance, but take this in mind. You may all go now, except those who received a yellow letter from me" He said.

Most of the other people in the room then turned to leave, and all of us that he had sent that 'yellow letter' to remained sitting down. The ones that had received this letter were Marco, Sanji, several commanders more and I. Whitebeard turned around, and silently signalled us to follow him into another room. We entered the room, and noticed that it was of an average size. It had some wooden chairs and a big wooden table in the centre, that had a big map on top of it. We all then surrounded the table, waiting for Whitebeard to speak.

"I am now going to assign you very important missions for our future" Pops then started saying. "He pointed at the map, more specifically at the town where the government's headquarters were located: To the Imperial City. "We have discovered though Nico Robin that the hunters decrypted the meaning of another piece of the scriptures" he started saying, "And this one stated that 'In the resting places of the old chosen ones you will find them'" he explained. Marco smiled with a knowing smile, while the rest of us thought about the meaning. "So the next one of the clues are in the tombs of the 'King of the Vampires' and of the 'Revolutionary Hunter'?" One of the commanders asked. Whitebeard smiled and nodded. "Yes, and that is one of our next steps" he then said. I gulped when hearing the name of my biological 'father', the one that I had never seen. Whitebeard the looked at me. "But right now we need proof of the Government's alliance with the 'Vampires of Blackbeard'" He said. "This is why you, Ace, will go to their headquarters to get proof of this" He said "You are one of the best candidates for this" he then added "Since it will be easy for you to enter and escape their headquarters" He added. I nodded, feeling proud that pops had chosen me as one of the best suited ones for this important mission. "Sanji, you will be in charge of going to both tombs. You have shown great potential after all" Whitebeard then said while he looked at the blonde. "Marco, you know where you have to go now too" Whitebeard then said. Marco nodded. "The three of you are discharged, you may go now. As for the rest of you..." Whitebeard started saying, just as I, along with Marco and Sanji left the room, prepared to go and complete the missions he had told us to do.


	8. Chapter 8

Here is chapter 8! it ended up being as long as last one, surprisingly, but I also really enjoyed writing it up. Thanks for all of your support! I'm glad that you all enjoyed last chapter! I also hope that you enjoy this one! I also wanted to ask you if any of you wanted any side pairings in this story? The main one is going to be Ace/Luffy, as I already said, but I was wondering if any of you wanted to see something more.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda-sama does. However I do own the plot of this story.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When I was out of where whitebeard had told several of us what missions we would have to do now I decided to go right away to the tombs that he had told me to go to. I already had a map with me, and I decided for hurry's sake to go first to the one that was closest, that was the tomb of the 'King of the Vampires', instead of losing time going to the one furthest away from here. I turned around, looking at Ace, who had just gone out of the room too.

"Well, see you later fire fist, good luck with your mission" I said, as I turned around and started walking through the streets, hoping to reach the tomb before it was dawn, something that seemed to be quite difficult. I didn't like dressing with thick robes to continue walking in the sunlight, it felt strange and unnatural.

I walked through the now completely empty streets of the town. There was barely any presence of guards now, since it was very 'late' for humans. It would be strange to see a human that was awake at this time. I soon found my way to the one of the gates on the outer wall of the city that led to the direction where the tomb that I wanted to go to approximately was at. There were only a few guards watching, but they were both half asleep already. It was a massive contrast with earlier, when there had been far too many guards watching who entered and went out of the town. I crossed the enormous gate without being noticed and then started running with all my strength through the wide sand path that would lead me to where I wanted to go. As I ran as quickly as I could I remembered the strange two hunters that I had seen in that bar while I was waiting for Ace to arrive. One was definitely a werewolf, that had become quite rare lately due to the very popular hunting of these creatures by the nobles, and he had green hair. _Green_ hair. How strange could that be? And the other one was, by how he had acted, a vampire. He had to be. That eye colour wasn't normal in humans, and almost impossible for one to have it, but he had been doing clear signs of being _starving_ for blood, but yet he had managed to stand his thirst and control himself instead of attacking one of the nearby humans. It was impressive, but why would a vampire control himself? and even better, why would a vampire be clearly a hunter? It made no sense. Vampires never joined the hunters, because it was kind of a big contradiction. Vampires usually joined some of the different vampire groups, and in some more rarer cases the government. But these vampires were frowned upon by the rest. They were 'traitors' in a sense. I had never encountered a vampire who was a hunter, nor heard about one.

I soon reached what I was looking for. I had never been near the tomb, but I heard plenty of things about what surrounded it: Savage beasts, big forests and many other legends. At last I had reached the part of the dense forest where the tomb was located. I could feel around me the presence of many beasts, that didn't dare to attack me, knowing what I was. I went towards the tomb of the king of the vampires. It was small, old and quite destroyed. it had many marks on it, of fights and of people who had dared to inscribe their names on the cold stones that composed the tomb. On the tomb there was inscribed a phrase that told who laid there. "Here lays the first 'King of the Vampires', Gol D. Roger" . I read it quickly, happy that I had managed to reach the tomb, that was a few kilometres away from the town, in much less time than the one I had expected. I then walked around the tomb. It had no signs that there was anything else to it. It just looked like a normal tomb, like those that you could see frequently near villages and inside or outside towns. I walked around it, expecting to find something that would show me more about the tomb. I spent quite some time going around the tomb, finding nothing that helped me with my mission. It was after some more time that I realised where what would show me where the 'clues' where was. I pressed a nearly unnoticeable rock that was on the ground with my foot, and soon a very loud sound was heard, the sound of machinery moving. Soon, the tomb started moving backwards, and stopped when it was a few metres away from its original position, leaving on my sight staircase that went down, into total darkness. I stared at my discovery, smiled lightly, and started going down. prepared to complete what Whitebeard had ordered me to do.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

We had been walking a very long time. Yes, a very long time. Why on earth had I decided to follow Zoro's indications when he had said that he knew where the tomb was. Why had I? Where had this trust on Zoro's sense of direction come from? We were now again at the town we had left hours ago, and neither Zoro or I had no idea how that was possible.

"Not this way" Zoro said, as he started at one of the gates of the town, surrounded again by guards and by people going in and out of it.

I laughed hard. "Obviously" I replied.

Zoro glared at me. "I suppose you know where it is then?" He said, with a challenging tone of voice. He was dying to see me committing the same mistake.

"Okay, I think I know where it is" I said, as I turned around, checked the map that I always carried with me, and then started walking at a fast pace through a wide path, that would supposedly take me to where the tomb was. Zoro as walking beside me, at the same pace that I walked at. I knew that we both would prefer to run, but several people were walking through the path and it wouldn't be good to be noticed too much. I heard Zoro almost growling, he too wanted to get to the tomb as fast as we could. We didn't want to take too long, after all there was something strange about the government these days and about several groups of vampires. Shanks had told us and all the other hunters several times already to be careful now, since there were strange things happening and it was best not to bring too much attention to us during missions to avoid our aims to be discovered. It was when we reached a part of the path that was comletely deserted where Zoro finally cracked.

"I can't stand this any longer" he said, as he started taking off his three swords, that were hanging around his waist, like always. "Luffy" He told me, as he gave them to me. I nodded, understanding what he was going to do. "Guide me towards that tomb" he then added. I nodded again, knowing what my best friend was about to do.

He got deeply concentrated, and then got on his four legs, calling the monster from within himself. He then shouted in pain, but it wasn't one as strong as the one he felt with the full moon. He soon started changing, but not into the half form I had seen so many times during the full moon, but into a complete form, that he could control and use only when there wasn't a full moon. His body started changing at a very fast pace, and soon his head, arms, body and everything had changed into those of an enormous wolf. Bare seconds after he had given me his swords there was a huge wolf where my best friend stood, with his left ear pierced three times, just like it was on his human form. Zoro looked at me with his deep black wolf eyes now, signalling me to grab him, and so I did. I grabbed to him and soon he dashed forwards, at a speed that very few could get to, while I told him where the tomb should be as quickly as I could

It was already midday when we got to the tomb. I got of Zoro, who I had ended up sitting on while he ran towards the tomb. it had taken us some time, but we had ended up arriving at, more or less, the estimated time. I looked at the tomb, that seemed to be like any other normal tomb. It didn't have any marks that showed where the next scriptures that we had to find were, or any detail of how we could get access to them. If I wasn't able to feel anything I would have immediately thought that there was no one near here, but I could feel the presence of various vampires and humans below us, surely fighting. I looked at Zoro, that hadn't bothered in changing back to his human form.

"You can feel it too, don't you?" I told him.

He nodded. he could indeed feel too the presence of vampires and humans below us. He usually had very good senses, but in his wolf form these got even better, and could be the envy of even vampires. I started walking around the tomb, searching for something that would lead us to the scriptures, when I suddenly found it quite quickly.

I grinned and I pressed with my foot an odd stone that was near the tomb. "Here you are!" I said as I did this, with a huge grin on my face. I soon heard the sound of machinery and saw Zoro looking at me as if thinking 'I'll never understand how you can find these kind of things so quickly'. I chuckled and then looked at the tomb as it started going backwards, showing a staircase that was located beneath it. When the tomb had finished moving I looked at Zoro, nodded and then started descending beside him the staircase that led to complete darkness.

We descended through the staircase for a long time. It was completely dark, and it was only thanks to what we were and our extremely good senses that we could work our way around and see a bit. Zoro with his hearing and smelling and me with my good sight, hearing and smell. My sight was a lot more accurate than Zoro's that because of being a werewolf was a bit deteriorated, and saw like the real animal wolves. This was especially noticeable when he wa sin his wolf form. My eyesight was very powerful, and so were my other senses, but Zoro in his wolf form Zoro had his smell and hearing senses improved, while his eyesight deteriorated.

When the staircase came to an end I looked around me, taking into account everything that I felt before I started walking. I could tell that there were now two corridors going in opposite directions, but which one was the correct one? The air was very damp, but it was very cold. I sniffed the air, and detected a smell of human and vampire blood, and hearing too the sound of people fighting distantly.

"There is a fight going on somewhere in here" I said aloud, knowing Zoro was thinking the same. The scent of blood was slightly alluring, but was not enough to make me have 'pain'. I had enough blood for now, thanks to Zoro. However, I could tell that if I remained here too long, the blood scent increased and I lost too much energy fighting, if we ended having to do that, I would get those pains again. I cursed inwardly, telling myself to finish this as quickly as I could. I didn't want to go through that again. I then noticed Zoro looking at me, inquiring me to say the direction we should go towards. yes, he had very good senses, but direction was a completely different story...

"Through here" I said, as I started going towards the direction I felt and knew was correct, that also was the one from which I detected the blood scent. Zoro immediately started walking behind me.

We started walking through the different corridors that appeared before us. There were many of them, and we had to chose a path several times based on the scent, what we heard from both tunnels and many other factors. As we advanced the corridors became thinner and thinner, until we reached the point where we had to walk one in front of the other, with barely any space for one of us. Soon there was complete darkness, and we continued going forwards with all of our other senses, that made up for the lack of light. Any human would have got completely lost by now, without any chances of returning to the surface. It was a long time after entering the 'tomb' when we finally reached the source of all of the fighting and the scent of blood.

It was a massive 'hall', that was dimly lit by a few torches, that looked about to extinguish. It was completely circular, and there were three other passages through which to go through other than the one we had used to enter, that was on top of a high staircase, while the other three were on the 'ground' level. Both Zoro and I blinked when we reached the room, since we had already become accustomed to the complete darkness we had been surrounded by only moments earlier. When we had finally become used to the light, which didn't take long, we entered and scanned what was happening inside the hall. There was a single blonde man that was dressed in a dark suit, that I could tell that was a vampire, fighting against a large group of humans and vampires on the 'ground' level. He was wounded in several places of his body, wounds made with no doubt by silver weapons, and he kept defeating the seemingly never ending wave of enemy humans and vampires, but... what was a vampire that clearly was from one of the main vampire groups fighting against other vampires? It made no sense at all. There were several bodies of dead humans and vampires scattered around the room, and you could tell that the blonde man had been fighting for a long time, since he was also nearly exhausted.

Once we had entered the hall all of the people that were inside it looked at us, surprised by our presence. The blonde man looked at us too, but with a knowing face, as if he already knew who we were or had already seen us. He only did this for a few moments though, and soon returned back to fighting the human and vampire guards.

"Who are they, we received no notices of more coming here! Are the three of them allied?" One of the human guards said as he looked at us.

"Hunters!" A vampire shouted, visibly nervous as he stared at us. It was seconds later when he realised who we were, or remembered stories. "It's that 'Straw Hat' Hunter!" He then shouted, when he realised who we were, not liking this one bit. Some of the other guards looked at us, also not liking this one bit.

"Kill them!" One shouted, as he started fighting against the blonde vampire.

Several guards that weren't fighting in that moment decided to point their guns, surely charged with silver bullets. I frowned and jumped off where we were currently located and onto the 'ground' floor elegantly, as I had become accustomed to do with my every action. I soon landed on the ground, and immediately started punching with all my strength the human guards and vampires beside me, causing them to crash onto the most nearby part of the wall or onto other guards. I combined this with using my silver dagger, that had been given to me such a long time ago by Shanks, and using it to kill the vampire guards around me. Zoro jumped right after me, landing on several guards in his wolf form, that he had remained in the whole time we had been inside this place, and started fighting the guard's around him, successfully making the fall dead or unconscious. Soon the scent of blood was thicker than ever on the room, and I could feel myself become more and more allured to it. I looked at the blonde man, who was still fighting. I could tell that he wasn't thirsty, since his eyes weren't black, and instead of a usual silvery blue colour typical in vampires. I noticed then that he was also smoking a cigarette.

Zoro and I continued fighting the guards, and the other man did the same thing. More and more guards came in, only to soon become unconscious or be killed by either Zoro, me or the other man. We continued fighting, and I started feeling myself become more thirsty. I cursed inwardly, I didn't want to go through that again.

A long time after we entered the room guards finally stopped going into the room. Had they all been killed? I grinned at this, showing for a brief moment my sharp fangs, while feeling a small lingering feeling of thirst and pain on my throat. I could tell that my eyes had become slightly more 'black', tainting darker my usual silver eyes. Zoro sighed, relieved. I could tell that he wanted to go away from here and finish the mission as soon as possible, the same as I. he looked at me with his deep black eyes, and I could tell that he could feel me being thirsty again. he always could. We then turned to one of the three paths that we could go through now. Two of them had been used by the guards to enter, so the only possible option now was the third one. I looked at Zoro, and indicated him the way to continue. He ran towards the path quickly, while I graciously walked towards the path I had indicated. When we were about to enter it the voice of the other man interrupted us.

"You aren't human, right?" he said, while looking at us from a distance, still smoking his cigarette.

Zoro and I looked at him. "How would you know?" I said. Zoro growled.

"I can feel that that wolf isn't a normal wolf, and by the way that he communicates with you I can not only tell that he is a 'human', but also that he is very accustomed to you, and vice versa. meaning, he is a werewolf, and probably Roronoa Zoro" he started saying.

Zoro growled again, probably trying to insult the man. I merely continued staring at him from beneath my thick robes, hood and straw hat, that successfully made impossible to see my face or recognise it, something which I inwardly thanked for. Zoro and I were known by the government and vampires to be two of the best hunters around, but no one really knew what we were, and in my case didn't know too how I really was. We also had quite high bounties on our heads too.

"Have you already seen us?" I asked the man.

He chuckled. "I have, in that town near the Imperial city, inside a bar" He said. "And I can tell that you... aren't either a human, aren't you?" He then added.

I glared at the man. "I don't care what you think, we are going to complete our mission" I said, as I took a step into the corridor that surely led to what we were searching for, Zoro beside me.

I heard the man laugh, and run towards us. "I'll be going there too. I must also complete a mission" he said "But I was attacked by those vampire and human guards when I got here, so thank you for helping me" He said, as he followed us into the darkness of the corridors again.

I didn't reply to this, but as soon as the man said this I heard Zoro growl something, that probably was an insult or two followed by a _'It was for the sake of our mission' _and one or two insults more.

When Zoro did this the man laughed again, imagining what the werewolf, Zoro, had said, and continued walking with us, in complete silence.

We continued walking like this, in silence, for quite some time. The only thing that was heard was water dripping from somewhere and the footsteps of the blonde man and of Zoro. I was the one who broke the silence in the end.

"You are member of one of the vampire groups, aren't you?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm a member of the Whitebeard vampires" The man answered.

"Many of the vampires that were guarding this place were clarly not members of the government, unlike many of the humans and a few of the vampires. Why then were you attacked? I thought that generally the vampire groups remained 'peaceful' to each other" I said, confused by this. Could it be that...?

"I don't know. I didn't expect to be received in such a way, but they clearly knew that I would come to this tomb, both the vampires and the humans" He said.

I nodded, realising what this could mean. Shanks would value this information. We then continued walking through the corridors, turning countless of times left and right, until we finally arrived to another slightly big space, where there was another object in the middle of the room that seemed to be another 'tomb'.

Zoro ran forwards, and stopped when he was right in front of the tomb, and then started looking around the room. I entered the room seconds later, and looked all around me. It was again dimly lit by several torches, that mad enough light to see the scriptures inside the room. However, many of these weren't writings, but merely drawings of suns, moons and stars. There were also some drawings that showed the last moments of the man that laid in this tomb, of the 'King of the Vampires'.

I immediately went towards the tomb, and touching to cold and heavy stone from which it was made of. I the grabbed it, and started moving it. It was very heavy, and soon the blonde man was helping me move it too. A few seconds later the block of stone that covered the 'tomb' was moved enough for us to see the corpse, or rather the bones, of the king of the vampires. I stared, along with Zoro and the blonde man, at the pile of bones in front of us, quickly searching for the scriptures that we were looking for. I quickly noticed a crumpled piece of paper in one of his 'hands'. I quickly got hold of it, and took the machine that took pictures that Zoro and I often used in these kind of missions. I quickly took a picture of the old piece of 'paper', that was quite big and had a large number of ancient symbols on it.

Once the picture was taken I looked at Zoro, and then at the blonde man, who I tossed the scriptures to. I didn't see a reason why not to give them to him. After all we already had the scriptures and he clearly wasn't a follower of Blackbeard. "It's all yours, we're finished here" I said, as I started running out of the room where the scriptures were located. The blonde man looked at me dumbfounded and caught the scriptures, and Zoro immediately started running behind me, wanting as bad as I did to get out of the tomb.

When we reached the room where some guards still were I felt my throat aching strongly again, and the monster inside me begging me to feed. I sighed, and looked around me, noticing Zoro's understanding look on me. I soon found a human guard that was trying to get up, and had a small den den mushi on his hands. I ran towards the guard, and punched him hard, making him crash against the wall that was behind him. I quickly appeared by his side, and got closer and closer to his neck, with my eyes completely black with thirst. I opened my mouth and bit into his skin, soon calming my thirst.

When the man was dead I got up, looked at Zoro, and then continued running through were we had come. It hurt me to do this, he was a human after all, but I had had to do that, or else he would have told the government of my nature, that had clearly been seen during the fight, and told the government of what we had just done. I sighed, feeling slightly guilty as I ran through the completely dark corridors, feeling Zoro's look on me that told me that it was only natural, since I was a vampire.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I looked at Shanks, understanding and repeating in my head what he had just told me to do. I nodded, assuring him that I would do the mission.

"Count on me, Shanks" I said as I started to go towards the door that led out of the room.

"It is important that you manage to do this, Usopp. I count on you" I heard the red haired man then said, before I left the room, prepared to complete my mission. However, I didn't know that somewhere else a certain blonde man had been commended with the same mission that I had been commended with.


	9. Chapter 9

Here is chapter 9! I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for all the support for this fanfic! I'm glad that you all like it ^_^ Well, like always thanks everyone for all the reviews, alerts and favs on this chapter, they really make me happy. Well, I hope you enjpy this chapter too! Please say what you thought about it with a review =D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda-sama does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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I remained still for quite a long time, having not expected for the hunter to give me the original copy of the scriptures. Even if he was a vampire he was a hunter! and I was a member of the Whitebeard Vampire! Why had he done that?

"It can be that he... trusts me?" I muttered as I clutched between m hands the old parchment that contained what I had been requested to find and continued staring at the only exit of the room through which the two hunters had gone away earlier. "What is going on here?" I asked myself mentally, as I checked around the room for more things, knowing that there was nothing else here of interest. "I better go away now then, before more guards come here and find me" I muttered as I went away from the dimly lit room and into the completely dark corridors, knowing that there was nothing else to get from the room, and the ones who had wanted to get the scriptures and stop me would get nothing now. It would be a devastating blow to them.

I starting running through the corridors, wanting to get out of this place as soon as possible to go to the other tomb. if there had been plenty of guards here there surely be there too... and who knows what they had managed to do there. But, how had they known that I was going to come here? How did they know about the mission that Whitebeard had given me? He had given it to me in nearly the most absolute secret, so... was there a spy right at the top of the group?

"I have to be quick..." I muttered as I continued running, also knowing that those two hunters would try to go to that tomb too. There was something very strange about all of this, and I didn't like it. I had to tell this to Whitebeard and the others as soon as possible.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

As soon as I was out of the room where Whitebeard had given me the mission, very few moments after Ace and Sanji were out, I started running towards the direction that Whitebeard had told me that the man that I had to go and talk to was. I had to be as careful as possible, since this had to remain in the most absolute secret of the rest of the people. Even the other members of the room hadn't known what my mission consisted of. Not even them. There was something very strange about the government these days and Whitebeard knew it, and this was why he had ordered me to do something that would have been unthikable weeks before.

"Red-Haired Shanks..." I muttered to myself as ran swiftly and quietly through the streets without being noticed by anyone that was out on this late time of the night.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I looked at the sky, watching Sanji as he went away in another direction and looking back at where I had just gone out, almost expecting Marco to go out from there in that moment. I shook my head and concentrated on what Whitebeard had ordered me.

"I have to get proof" I thought as I started walking through one street that I knew that would take me to the Imperial City, where the government was. It would be difficult to get inside, there was no doubt about that. And the fact that the government knew who I was, or at least how I dressed, wasn't going to make it easier.

I looked up, and tried to calculate what time it would be when I arrived to the Imperial City. "Probably dawn" I muttered. That would be troublesome, since because of what I was and what the sun would unavoidably do to me. I also knew the guards started heavily guarding the city at a very early time too. which would further make this more difficult.

"I'll see what I will do when I get there" I muttered, as I continued walking elegantly and quietly through the streets. The sun would definitely be a problem, but luckily for me I had a cloak inside my bag that would help me survive when it was daytime, although I didn't like putting it on since it felt oppressive and foreign. I didn't like covering myself, and only did so when it was absolutely necessary. I was a vampire, and doing that felt like I was betraying my nature, even if I hadn't always been one...

Soon I was out of the city that had been full with vampires that were members of the Whitebeard Vampires, and I was walking through the plain fields that surrounded this town, staring at the massive figure that could be seen in the horizon that was the Imperial City. The Imperial City had been the famously known Headquarters of the government for thousands of years. It was very tall, and had thick outer and inner walls that defended it, only two gates to enter and many towers where there were countless guards prepared to attack the first suspicious person that appeared. It was on top of a mountain, and many people lived there, inside the enormous stone walls that defended it. The city was also famously divided in two by a continuation of the outer stone wall since ancient times. The wall had been designed to probably divide the human and vampire population of the city before any of the groups had been formed, when both races had first 'met' in the world. Now this divide almost continued in the city, but in a very unnoticed and more diluted way in comparison to before. Most of the families that lived there either worked with the government or had been living in their houses for centuries. It was hard to buy or rent a house there, not only because of the lack of new buildings but also because of the tight government control on the area. It was usually full with people who went to the city to sell things that they had to the people of the city, which made it an extremely busy city, that was full with all kinds of people.

Several hours after getting out of the city the meeting had been at I finally arrived to the Imperial City, when the sun was about to rise. I quickly got out the cloak that I always carried with me, took of my hat and put the cloak on, then putting the hat on again in a way in which it fell onto my back. I closed the cloak, that was completely black and made my face impossible to recognise with the quite large hood that was attached to the cloak and that now covered it. that also made me seem like some kind of monk, by the way the cloak was. I went towards one of the main gates, trying to get to see something of the inside of te town, but seeing nothing but a very tall tower in what seemed to be the centre of it.

"The headquarters" I muttered, as I hid behind some bushes so the enormous group of guards surrounding the gate I intended to go through didn't see me. I knew that if they saw me, even if completely covered, they would immediately know what I was, and it wouldn't take them long to recognise who I was.

I remained there for quite long, until I noticed a small group of peasants that were carrying a cart full of what probably was grain.

"I've got it" I said to myself, as I went out of my hiding place and swiftly and discreetly jumped into the mountain of grain, not being noticed by any of the people that were carrying it, and hid myself inside it, being able to see a tiny bit of the outside while I was inside the mountain of grain.

I noticed the peasants getting closer and closer to the gate, and I remained as still as possible to successfully hide myself from the guards.

"What do you carry there?" One guard asked, nearing the people.

"Grain that we want to sell" The man replied confidently

The guard went around the cart several times before being convinced, even if it all that could be seen was grain. He got hold of a bunch of grain, quickly putting it back onto the cart. "You can pass" He said.

"Thank you" One of the people that carried the cart said before continuing forwards.

I grinned from my hiding place, glad that I hadn't been noticed by the guards. I remained inside the cart for quite some minutes, until I felt it coming to a stop.

"We've arrived" One of the men said.

I quickly then jumped out of my hiding place, and hid myself in a small street, luckily not being noticed by the men that were carrying the cart.

"You have to be more careful next time, some of the grain fell onto the floor" One of them said, when he noticed the grain that had fallen onto the floor due to me jumping out of my hiding place.

I smirked and started walking through the small street that I had decided to hide at. It was empty and very dirty, and you couldn't find a single door in it. I walked through it, not feeling too comfortable, until I reached what seemed to be one of the main streets. This one was full of groups of people that were walking up and down it, carrying all kinds of things ad happily chatting away. There was also quite a number of guards patrolling through it. I waited for a group of people to come near where I was, still hiding in the small and deserted street. Soon, a group of people walked near where I was, and I joined them, soon mixing with the crowd and becoming completely unnoticed. I had had quite some practice at doing this in various missions, since I usually was required to be completely unnoticed by everyone to complete my goal. I had become an expert at infiltrating places and had some practice at assassination, which made me quite a dangerous person to other groups, due to this and also to my excellent fighting abilities, that I always had had. The government knew this, and they soon had given me a bounty for it, but they had never managed to capture my face, and was just recognised by my trademark orange hat that I always carried with me.

I looked forwards, and saw the enormous tower that was sin the middle of the city, attached to the wall that divided it in two. "There" I thought, as I started to change from group to group, getting nearer and nearer to the building that was surrounded by guards. I walked around the place several times, trying to find a way to enter with which I wouldn't be detected, but it seemed impossible to do through that main door. I looked around, and saw a place where I was completely out of view from the guards. I went towards there in the same way I had moved around until now, and soon I was in a 'safe' place. I then scanned my surroundings, recalling all the information I had heard from different people about this place. if I remembered correctly I had heard Marco mention once that there was a secret entrance somewhere around here, disguised as a common object. I then started touching the walls and floor, trying to find what he had meant and if it was here. I spend many minutes like this, but with no result. I then grew tired of searching, and I leaned against the stone wall of the tower that I was supposed to enter without being detected, near a strange rock fountain that was built on the wall. I didn't pay much attention to it, and I continued in this position, thinking what I could do.

"I could break into the tower and defeat everyone until I get what I wanted" I muttered, soon deciding that that wasn't something good to do in this case. I could have thought about doing it before, but Pops had told us to be discreet and not let ourselves be discovered by anyone. So doing that was out of option. I then shifted a bit, and leaned against the fountain. it was then when I realised that there was something strange about how touching the fountain felt. It had a touch different to that of the rest of the building, as if it was meant for a different purpose. I started touching it in all places, finishing on its faucet, and discovered two words imprinted on it's base. I got closer to it, trying to read the words.

" Diei et noctis aeternae" I muttered as I read the words that were inscribed on the base of the faucet of the strange fountain. There was also a symbol imprinted near those words that I could not see well due to it being too eroded, but a moon and a star were clearly recognisable on it, along with several eroded roman numerals. It reminded me of my medallion in a strange way. I then started touching the tap of the faucet, and started turning it in one direction a lot, making an awful lot of water fall from it, but after several seconds of turning this suddenly stopped, and a light 'click' was heard. I blinked twice as I saw the fountain move to one side, leaving a dark path in front of me that led to the inside of the tower. I smiled and then went into the path, wanting to finish the mission once and for all.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I had been running a lot, something that I wasn't entirely used to. I had managed to get into the tower of the government headquarters without being noticed by anyone, and how had I managed to do this? It was easy. I had managed to do this by using my female charms to deceive a guard of the tower to then attack him, and then steel the uniform he wore. I grinned at this thought.

"How can men be so stupid?" I asked myself as I continued running through the tower.

I had received a mission from Shanks not too long ago. he had sopoken me about a possible alliance between a group of vampire and the government, and had requested me, Nami, to go into the main headquarters to gather some evidence. it was my speciality after all. I wasn't a powerful fighter, but when it came to these kind of things I was a dangerous person.

I turned around several times through several corridors, knowing exactly where I wanted to get to. I had been preparing for this mission for quite a long time after all, and I had studied a map of the inside of the tower very carefully, making sure that I remembered every single detail of it to ensure completing the mission successfully. I wanted to get to the tallest part of the tower, where the most important archives of the government were kept. That was the place where the 'proof' that I was searching for surely would be.

I t took me some time, but I managed to arrive to the highest floor of the building, after running up stairs like a madman. I stopped for a second to recover my breath. I was exhausted. Once I was sure that I was okay again I regained my composure and started walking towards the door in the way a marine would have done. There was only one guard guarding the door.

"Admiral Akainu has requested me to get an archive from the library" I said in a confident tone of voice, when I was right in front of the guard.

The man looked at me, eying me suspiciously. "Another one? Someone was already requested to get some archives by another admiral" The man said. I gulped, how bad could my luck be? "Well, you can go in" The man then said, as he moved to one side and opened the door, letting me go into the room.

I nodded and thanked the guard before entering the room, wondering who had entered the room. If my information was correct barely any information was requested on a _yearly_ basis, so it was very rare for someone to ask for permission to enter the room on any day, and today no one should have entered the library. No one. How bad could my luck be? I walked through the gigantic room that was covered by shelves on each and every wall, each one of them with papers piled on them up to their limit. Each shelf had some indications of what kind of archives it had on it. I walked around the room, trying to find the shelf in which the documents I wanted to get had to be while trying to find the other person that had entered the room.

I soon found that person, on the same shelf that I was supposed to be looking at. He was a tall man, with unruly black hair that reached his shoulders. He had a marine uniform on him, but there was something about him that made him seem strange and that made it seem like he wasn't a marine. There was just an aura around him that was very familiar, and the way he was searching the documents...

"You aren't from the government" I stated when I realised what it was that made him seem so strange. "You are a vampire, not a member of the government" I then added, making the man turn around and look at me.

"Oh really?" He then said as he stared into me with burning silvery eyes and his left eyebrow raised, which gave him a strange facial expression. He also had childish freckles all over his cheeks. The man then grinned, revealing two sharp fangs.


	10. Chapter 10

Here is chapter 10! I added indicators of who's point of view is on each part out of a request, so I hope it helps! I forgot to translate the meaning of the Latin phrase that I put on last chapter, so I'll put the meaning now. "Diei et noctis aeternae" means "The eternal night and day". It will have quite some relevance later on, so here it is the meaning so you can think about it ;D Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and thank you all for all of the favs, alerts and reviews on this story. Thank you all for reading it too! =D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda-sama does. I do own the plot of this story though.

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Ace's POV:

I had managed to get into the library of the government headquarters after looking a lot around and hiding myself for an amount of time that had seemed to be too long, until I found a room where the uniforms destined to be wore by the guards were kept. It was then when I had the wonderful idea to change into one and start making my way to where the library should be by exploring the place without the need to hide so much. I was still carrying my bad, but thankfully it wasn't noticed too much by the real guards of the place.

It took me some time, but I soon found where the archives I was looking for was by listening to a group of guards talk, and I immediately made my way to the top of the building, where the library was. When I arrived I noticed that there was only one guard guarding the door.

"What do you want?" He asked as soon as he saw me.

"I was asked by the admiral Aokiji to get several archives from the library" I immediately said in a confident and loud tone of voice.

The man looked at me for a very short time before letting me go into the room. "Very well, feel free to go in" He said, as we stepped to a side while opening the door.

I nodded and stepped inside, trying to look as much as I could to a normal guard of the building. The door soon was closed behind me, so I supposed that I had done a good job at deceiving the man. I started looking around me and at every shelf that I could see at the moment that was in the room. All were loaded with all kinds of documents, perfectly ordered, but piled on the shelf to its limits. I started going around, and noticed that each shelf was clearly labelled with the kinds of contents that was on it. I walked around for a bit, looking at each shelf and wondering where I should start. I suddenly saw one that was named "Government affairs", and decided to start checking through that one.

I went towards said shelf, and started going through all the files. They were all of the same brown colour, and each file had numerous papers inside. I started picking up the files and leaving them in small piles on the floor as I went through them, stopping several times to look at the contents of a few ones, but finding nothing. By the end of the small searching I had done on this shelf there was a small 'lake' of files on the flor, and I started putting them back to the shelf, but not in the same order as they were before, since that order was long gone. I went towards another shelf, and repeated this process, but finding nothing yet again. Many minutes passed during which I continued searching with no result, until I came across a particular shelf that had "vampires" written on it.

"It better be this one" I thought as I went towards it, after 'ordering' the files of another shelf that I had just gone through.

I started looking through it, and just then the sound of the door opening echoed through the whole room, followed by the sound of female steps.

"How bad can my luck be?" I wondered as I continued searching through the files at an incredible speed, trying to find what I was looking for before the person that had just entered the room saw me.

Soon I heard some steps behind me, and I soon could sense the presence of a human right behind me. Soon she spoke, confirming my suspicions that I would be soon discovered as not being a member of the government.

"You aren't from the government" I heard the woman behind me say. I sighed, and continued looking through the files, trying to find what I was looking for in a desperate attempt to get out of the room soon. What had given me away? Was it the way I wore the uniform? My bag? How I was searching for the files? or was it something else entirely?

"You are a vampire, not a member of the government" I heard the woman say again, with a higher tone of voice.

"Now, this is different..." I thought as I turned around to look at the woman, with my left eyebrow raised and a grin on my face that revealed my fangs. "Oh really?" I said to the woman as I did this.

I looked at her for several seconds. She was quite slim, had short orange hair and brown eyes and was wearing a government uniform. However there was something strange about her. She had known how to recognise what I was, when usually a very small amount of guards knew how to recognise a vampire. The only humans that were known to know how to recognise vampires were the hunters, so was she one of them?

"Neither are you" I stated with the grin still on my face, looking at her. She decided to ignore this my comment and continue talking.

"Why are you here?" She then questioned, with a commanding tone of voice.

I decided to ignore this and turn around to continue looking through the archives. She really didn't look too strong, and I was sure that I would be able to defeat her with no problems if she decided to attack me.

"You are a hunter, aren't you?" I asked some time later, feeling her anger grown.

She gritted her teeth a bit before answering. "Yes, but what are you doing here, vampire?" She questioned again.

I sighed, annoyed, and decided to answer her before she repeated the question again. "Probably the same thing that you are meant to do here" I replied with a simple tone of voice, as I continued looking at her.

She didn't do anything for several moments, and continued staring at me. "What group are you from?" She then asked, clearly not expecting my answer.

"Whitebeard's" I simply answered. She was clearly here for the same reason as I was. There were no other possible reasons to be here, but why were the hunters interested in the same thing?

She stared at me, thinking of what to do when she then started walking through the files on the shelf I had been looking at before she had interrupted me and started going though them calmly.

"Yiu better be quick to find what you want, apparently we both used the same excuse to get in here" She then said. "They will start suspecting soon" She then added, as she continued her labour.

I was surprised by this and I immediately turned around to face again at the shelf and started looking through the files. We were both like this for quite a long time, until we found several files with titles on them that read "Blackbeard" and other similar files on the main vampire groups. I got hold of one of them and started checking it. It was one about one of the other vampire groups and mainly a report about action that had been taken against it... with the aid of the Blackbeard Vampires. I grinned when I finished checking it. This was just what I had wanted to find. I saw from the corner of my eye that the woman had a similar expression on her face. It was then when we heard several knocks on the only door of the room, and immediately after that the voices of several guards and what seemed to be an important person were heard out of the room.

"Shit" I muttered, realising what was going to happen.

"They got us" The woman muttered then, as she looked around the room, searching for an exit, but finding none.

I looked around the room too for another possible exit, but then I realised that I would find none, and for a very obvious reason. "We're in the top floor" I said aloud, trying then to find another way of escaping that didn't mean having to fight my way back down and being discovered. The woman realised this too, and looked at me with horror. it was a few seconds later when both of our eyes ended up on the massive windows of the room, and an idea suddenly came to my mind.

"The window!" I thought with a grin, as I started going towards it. The orange haired woman looked at me, waiting to see what I was going to do. I opened the window and looked down. It was very high, and there wasn't a river anywhere soon. Luckily the walls had many pieces of stones and rocks that were sticking out, and that made it possible to climb down or hide in this way from the guards for a bit. I touched the walls around the enormous window for a bit, smiling since I had just found a way out. I got hold of the file again, opened the bag I had been carrying and put it away inside the bag. Since it was daytime, I would have to wear some more protection against the sun than the simple hat that was included in the guards uniform, so I got out the cloak that I had been wearing hours earlier and ut it on, making usure that it covered every inch of my skin.

"Are you really going to do that?" The woman then asked, as she saw me nearing the window again.

"Yes, but feel free to use any other escaping method that you can think of" I replied before I sat on the window and very carefully started hanging from it, making sure that I had enough rocks sticking out of it so I could climb down. I knew that I could wait for the guards inside the room to go away, but there wasn't any guarantees that they would let us out then, and I wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible, since I already had what I wanted. When I had finally finished doing this I started to slowly climb down, thankful that I was climbing down through a part of the . I looked up again several minutes later after I had started doing this and saw that the red haired woman had started climbing down too. The voices of the guards as they entered the room could be heard too, and also their cries of surprise as they saw that there was no one in the room, that most archives were completely disorganized and that all the windows were open.

It took me about an hour to get to the floor again, and by then it was already night time. I noticed that the woman that I had met in that room was still climbing down at a slower pace than I was, but that was due to me being a vampire and having more strength. "Now I just have to find a way to get out of this town" I uttered to myself, as I started walking through the streets.

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Usopp's POV:

I ran through the streets of the very small town where Shanks had told me that I would find the person I had to deliver his message to. Where I would find Whitebeard. I hadn't asked him how he knew where whitebeard would be though, but I was curious by now. Had they contacted each other before, or maybe there were several spies inside their organisation? I shook my head, trying to clear it from all of the strange thoughts that I was getting. There were definitely no spies inside Whitebeard's organisation, and there clearly hadn't been any contact between both organisations before if I was being sent to deliver a message. If there had been any communications between them then this would be completely irrelevant and useless. But how did he know then?

"It probably was a lucky guess. Both have known each other for quite a long time after all." I thought, as I continued running through the streets of the town where Whitebeard supposedly was. "But how am I supposed to find where that man is?" I then asked aloud, making the few half drunk people that were walking through the abandoned streets of this town to look at me. I looked at some of them, but immediately decided to continue walking. I didn't want to waste time here for too long, since I still had to deliver the message, and to do that I had to find the place in the first place.

I continue running through the streets, trying at first to see or find a vampire, but after some time it became clear that I wouldn't be able to do that, and that it didn't make sense to reveal your location in such an easy way if you were wanted by the government and strange things had been happening lately concerning the other vampire groups. I then sat down on a bench in a completely abandoned street, trying to think about what I should do to find the place.

"Shanks said that it was in this place, and that it's exact location was 'obvious'" I muttered, as I tried to think about what he had meant exactly. "But what is 'obvious'?" I continued muttering, as I thought about the options. "Maybe it is marked with some sort of sign" I then said as I got up, decided to find this place. "I won't manage to do anything useful if I continue sitting down here, so I better get up and search for the place" I then said to myself, as I started walking through the streets, looking closely at every detail that I could find.

Time passed and as the night came to an end I didn't manage to find anything. I was starting to get tired, and I had the paranoid feeling that I was being watched by someone. I sat on a bench again, that this time was in a park where during the day children would usually play. It brought bad good memories from when I was a child, but this park had a dark aura around it that made me feel unsafe and as if I was about to be attacked at any moment.

"I wonder where it is..." I mused aloud, as I continued thinking. I hadn't found a single thing. Not a strange mark, house or individual. This was the most normal looking town that I had seen in my entire life. There was nothing suspicious about it. Not. A. Thing. I continued sitting down, as I thought of what I could do. Nothing came to my mind, but as I tried to think of something I heard a group of two _drunk _ people talking.

"I swore I saw a shadow move" I heard one say as he tried to walk well through the street. He didn't receive a reply from the other man, but I soon was curious about what they had meant. "I swore it was in that house! I swear it was!" He repeated again, this time to only be hit in the head by the other man.

I continued sitting down for while after they left, and then decided to go to the other direction they had gone through before, and try to find what that man had meant.

"He was drunk, for god's sake!" I muttered to myself as I walked through the street they had been previously walking through. "Why am I even doing this?" I then asked aloud, only to soon answer my own question. "Because I don't have a single other idea" I muttered then.

I walked through the street, this time more calmly, listening to every sound around me. I soon passed by a closed bar, but as I was passing by I heard a distant laughter.

"But it is very late, how can there possibly be..." I muttered, as I looked at the bar and started going towards it.

When I was in front of it I saw that the door seemed to be locked, but weren't like that in reality. Then I heard it again. The faint noise of someone laughing.

"Maybe I shouldn't enter" I thought, as I felt my feet shaking wildly. "Who knows who or what is inside there..." I continued muttering as I stood in front of the door. "No, I have to do this" I then said to myself again, remembering what Shanks had told me. It was an important mission! I had to be a brave warrior!

I slowly pushed the door of the bar open, trying to make no sounds at all, but as soon as I started doing this a loud '_creaaaaaaak_' was heard. I cursed under my breath by bad luck, surely anyone that was inside would know my presence by now. I entered the room, noticing how the floor squeaked as I moved around the bar. There wasn't too much light, but the little light that illuminated the room was enough for me to see that this bar was covered in dust, and seemed to have been completely abandoned for a very long time. But I had heard a distant laugher coming from here, so how was that possible? I walked around the room until I found something that resolved my question. On one of the tables there was a bottle that was completely clean and without a single spot of dust on it. I went towards it and touched it, only to find that it moved only to ones side. As soon as it had moved I heard the sound of clattering machinery and soon a part of the wall had moved silently, revealing a set of well illuminated stairs. I went towards the stairs, with my legs shaking again, and as I started descending them I heard more voices.

"The door opened, I wonder who entered" One of them said

"Maybe it was Ace or Marco returning" Another said.

"No, it's too early for that" The first voice said again. "It must be another one, I also don't feel that person to be one of 'us'" The voice then finished saying.

I gulped as I finished going down the stairs, and looked at the door that now was in front of me, and that led to the room where the laugher that I had first heard came from and where Whitebeard could be in. I gulped again as my hand grabbed the knob of the door and gathered all my strength and courage before I started opening the door.

As soon as I had finished doing this I saw a very large set of eyes looking at me, with surprise, hate and... hunger.

"A human!" One shouted, as another one. As another vampire leaped at me and pinned me against a wall.

"What do you want here? Do you work for the government?" He asked.

I shook my head desperately. "No, I just come to deliver a message to Whitebeard" I said, as I felt my legs shaking again.

"From who? Tell us!" He then asked, with a veyr loud and demanding voice.

I was about to answer when I heard a powerful voice come from another side of the room that couldn't e seen from the door. "Let him see me, we will lose nothing for it. Plus, he says he wants to deliver a message" The voice finished saying then

"Okay pops" The man said, before he let me go.

I went to the other side of the room, and there I saw a very tall vampire that was very well built that had several medical devices attached to him and a very big coat on him. I couldn't help but look at his strange moustache too.

"So, what message do you want to give me and who is it from?" The man then asked.

I gulped as I looked at the _legend_ before me. I was in front of Whitebeard, one of the most powerful vampires there was in the world. One of the leaders of the three vampire groups. "I have a message from Shanks" I started saying.

The man looked surprised at me, waiting for me to continue.

"He wanted me to tell you that he requests for you to meet him soon" I then finished saying, not being able to stop looking at the man.


	11. Chapter 11

Here is chapter 11! I hope you enjoy it! There is also a special character appearing on this one, so you'll see *nods* Anyways, thanks for all the favs, alerts and reviews received and for reading this fanfic up until now! I really hope that you enjoy this chapter too! =D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

We arrived to the tomb of the 'Revolutionary' hunter hours after we left the tomb of the 'King of the Vampires' , and by then it was night time once again. This one was right in the middle of a very large forest of pine trees, that had a menacing atmosphere around it, and the fact that there was a very thick fog didn't help one bit in making the menacing atmosphere go away. I could sense that there were no animals in a very large surrounding area, which was strange, since this forest was know because of the enormous and very strong animals that inhabited it.

"So we finally arrived" Zoro stated, as we stopped right in front of the tomb where the 'Revolutionary hunter', the legendary hunter of all times and the old leader of the Hunter's Association, my real father, was buried. I stared at the tomb for quite a while, not knowing what to feel. I had never met my father, since he had been executed by the government very few days after I was born, according to data I had gathered. Looking at the grave made me get old memories, of the time I had lived with my human grandfather, the "Hero of the government" Garp, and also of the time that I had been sent to that orphanage with scary Dadan, where I had met Sabo and...

"Ace..." I muttered, as I continued looking at the grave.

Zoro looked at me questioningly, but guessed that I was thinking of the times when I was young and still a human, before I had met him. It happened every once in a while, when I saw something familiar, and I was suddenly invaded by a great and deep sadness, that only went away hours later. of course this happened too when I thought of ace when looking at old objects that I kept as 'memories' and important things, but it wasn't as obvious as it was when I saw something familiar to me, that I had seen in the past or reminded me of a certain event.

"There is something strange here..." Zoro muttered, as he stared at the grave.

I nodded. There indeed was something very strange and out of place with this place, but what was it exactly? "Yes" I answered him, confirming his suspicions.

After we had left the first tomb Zoro hadn't taken too much time to change back into his human form, due to feeling more secure by being able to fight with his swords. He had a great strength and agility when he was a wolf, and we both knew this, but he also was a very good fighter with his swords, and the fact that he wanted to be the best swordsman in the whole world also contributed to this fact. I hadn't seen that blonde man we had met earlier in the first tomb yet, but I could guess that we would see him again in this one, since he seemed to have the same mission as we did.

"Let's go on" I then said with a light smile on my face, wanting to complete this mission and deliver both scriptures to Shanks as soon as possible.

Zoro nodded and we both took as step forwards, getting closer to the tomb. We then examined it. It was very similar to the one of the King of the Vampires, but there were different ornaments, symbols and words drawn on it. I noticed a part of it that looked as if it had a moon faintly inscribed on the stones that composed the tomb, and also some faint words inscribed on top of it, that seemed to read "diei et noctis aeternae". I continued looking at it for some seconds, but soon lost interest on it and started looking at other parts of the tomb. There surely had to be a part of it that allowed it to be 'opened', to let us through to where the real tomb was and where the scriptures were kept. I walked around, looking at the tomb and trying to concentrate on what I was doing and on the mission, but I couldn't help but to start to remember the good old times when Ace was around. I still remembered how good it felt when I was around him, how nervous I sometimes was when he grabbed my hand, and his rare but warm smiles that always brightened my day, no matter how dark and horrible it had been. I still remembered them, and I still wanted to get them back, to go back to those times and continue living them as if nothing of what happened really happened, to continue living with Ace.

It was Zoro's voice what pulled me out of my thoughts. "I've got it" He said, as he pressed a button. Soon the loud sound of machinery was heard, and soon the tomb started moving backwards, starting to reveal a dark staircase almost equal to the one that could be seen on the other tomb that we had been in earlier. When the tomb had stopped moving and the staircase was revealed we were prepared to go into it, but something stopped us from doing so. There was a loud 'bang' heard all over the place, followed by the feeling of hot air that came from the inside of the tomb and then a massive amount of fire that suddenly came out of the staircase, that was also followed by more explosions and finally by the tomb collapsing.

I jumped to one side as I felt the hot air coming, taking Zoro down with me and effectively saving both of us from the fire that suddenly came out of the main entrance.

"What has happened?" Zoro muttered aloud as he got up from the floor, silently thanking me by looking at me.

I smiled at this. "I don't know, someone made the tomb explode and collapse" I said then, as I also got on my feet.

Zoro nodded and watched the tomb carefully, as if expecting something to appear. "I can smell someone strange coming out of it" He said, as he continued staring at the tomb and at the massive part of land behind it that had collapsed earlier.

"I can feel him too" I said, soon picking up what my friend meant.

"A vampire, but who is he?" Zoro said aloud, as he looked around us. The presence felt as if it was very close to us, but the thick fog didn't let us see a single thing, and we couldn't smell much either because of the thick smell of explosive components, fire and burnt things that was occupying all the air around us.

I blinked several times as I continued feeling that presence. It felt familiar. Very familiar. It felt as if I had met that vampire already, but I couldn't place exactly a presence like this with anyone that I had ever met. I thought for a while about who it could be, that gave me a very light headache that disappeared as quickly as it had come, and I only turned around when I heard some footsteps coming from one side, Zoro soon doing the same. I could soon distinguish the silhouette of the vampire that had surely caused all of this, and it was then when realisation hit me in the face, and when I remembered who that presence was from. It was a very familiar one after all, one that I had met precisely 810 years ago, and that had made everything happen. The one that had destroyed my perfect life.

Blackbeard!" I hissed as I looked at the face of the man, that still couldn't be seen well.

I soon heard him laugh, as if he was mocking me. "Zehahaha!" The vampire loudly laughed, causing me to grit my teeth together and Zoro to start glaring at him and to clutch his swords very hard, prepared to attack in any moment. "I didn't expect to see you again, kid" The vampire then said, with a mocking tone f voice. "It's a miracle to see you again here, a wonder to see you alive" He then added, as he came closer to us.

We soon could see him. He was exactly as I had first seen him that fateful day, with the same appearance, the same long unruly black hair and the same beard. He hadn't changed at all, but he was now wearing a long coat that was similar to those that pirates were usually depicted to wear.

"Why are you here?" I asked with a tone of voice full of hate, rage and fury. I wanted to jump at the man and kill him for everything that he had done. It was something that I had wanted to do for a very long time, since that day.

The man laughed again. "Zehahaha! Isn't it obvious?" he said, as he lifted his right arm, and revealed a very ancient looking piece of parchment.

"The scriptures" Zoro muttered, as he got into a more aggressive position, prepared to attack at any time. "What do you wish to do with them?" Zoro then asked.

"The same thing as you do" he easily replied in an insulting tone of voice. "Just understand what they say" He then added, before laughing again. "And you cannot do a thing about it kid. Not a thing" He then finished saying, as he glared at me.

I heard Zoro grit his teeth, and I did the same before finally jumping at the man with all my strength, wanting to crush him badly. I shouted with raw anger as I did this too, and blackbeard laughed again.

"No, Luffy. Wait!" I heard Zoro shout, but it was too late. As soon as I was half a metre away from the man he lifted one of his arms and without any effort at all he hit me so I was suddenly was launched backwards, and crushed against a nearby tombstone that shattered from the brutality of the impact.

"Luffy!" Zoro shouted as he looked at me, only to get into a more defensive position as he looked at the man. "Who are you?" He then asked.

"Me? Zehahaha!" The man said, not being able to contain his laughter as he looked at me several times, as I started to get up from the floor and lift myself from the rubble that I was now surrounded with. "Didn't you hear that kid? I am Blackbeard!" He shouted.

Zoro gritted his teeth again, understanding what it all meant then. "So you're the one that ruined his life?" He then said to the vampire.

Blackbeard laughed again. "Ruined? I just killed his worthless brother and turned him into something stronger, that is no ruining" He then said, with a mocking tone of voice.

This was enough to make me furious again, or rather, to make me even more furious and just increase my killing intent on the man. "Don't you dare mock Ace like that!" I shouted, angrier than ever.

The man laughed again, and blocked the punches that I aimed at him at a tremendous speed, and continued laughing as he continued blocking my attacks and avoiding some hits. "So that was the worthless brat's name then? So weak! Even for someone of his nature!" He then added, only making me to increase the strength and fury that I poured into each blow, that was unavoidably stopped easily by the vampire. Soon all of this stopped, the man quickly disarmed me from my silver gun and knife when I tried to attack him with them, punched me so I crashed into another nearby tombstone and then got hold of my gun, and quickly pointed at my stomach with it. I heard a 'click' and I saw the vampire's finger slowly press more and more the trigger.

Zoro was enraged by now, and he ran towards Blackbeard with his three swords, trying to stop him. from shooting and defeating him. Blackbeard however soon lifted a leg and delivered Zoro a hard blow, which caused him to also be launched into a nearby tombstone. He then pressed the trigger, and soon large amounts of blood were pouring onto the ground from my stomach. I groaned in pain, and tried to get up again to continue fighting the vampire. It was painful. Very painful, and it didn't let me think correctly, and instead it made me focus on the immense pain that I felt. I had been too reckless.

"Luffy!" I heard Zoro shout, as he started to get up too.

"Oh now, I've had enough of playing with you kids" Blackbeard then said, quickly pointing the gun at Zoro and shooting at his stomach at him too, with the same kind of silver bullet that had been used on me but that was even deadlier to him. Zoro fell onto the ground, hissing with pain. I could only watch helplessly as I saw all of this happening and Blackbeard then laughing loudly with his typical laugh. I tried to get up again, and after some seconds I managed to be on my feet again, with my had clutching the wound on my stomach that didn't stop bleeding or didn't heal itself, like all wounds made by a silver weapon on a vampire. While I got up I had also managed to get hold of my silver dagger, that now was being held on my other hand. It was even worse on Zoro. By when I had managed to get up Blackbeard had already turned around, and had started to walk away, still laughing.

"Don't you dare to turn away!" I shouted angrily, making him turn. "I am your opponent!" I then finished saying, with the same loud and furious voice that I had used before.

Blackbeard looked at me with surprise written all over his face. "You still have energy to get up and fight even with that silver bullet inside you?" He said aloud "Impressive, it turns out that you aren't as weak as I expected" He then continued saying. he stopped talking for several seconds, during which I stared right into his eye, transmitting like this all my anger to him. "Unluckily for you, kid, I don't want to continue playing with you. I have better things to do" he then said again, as he started turning around.

I gritted my teeth as I saw him doing this. "I am your opponent! Don't you dare turn around!" I shouted again with fury.

Blackbeard chuckled and then looked at me again. "I give you and your friend an opportunity to live and yet you say you still want to fight me? Very well" He started saying, as he started making his way towards me. "You'll get to die if that is what you want so much!" He then shouted, as he started running towards me.

I grinned with my typical elastic grin and ran towards him, while the hand that used to be clutching the wound I had was prepared to be used to punch Blackbeard, and the other still held the silver dagger I had. Blackbeard also had a silver knife on one of his hands, but he was clearly going to try and punch me. When I was in an acceptable hitting range I tried to punch him, and he immediately stopped my attack, and prepared to attack me with his other hand. I then moved my silver dagger swiftly towards his stomach and managed to wound him with it, causing more blood to drop on the floor, but this time it came from him. I grinned when I saw Blackbeard realising that I had managed to hit him, and before he had sunk his silver knife in me.

"You little-" He started saying, as he then attacked me brutally with the knife once time, causing me to have a deep wound near the wound that had previously been caused by him. I fell onto the floor, with a look of pain on my face, but with a bloodied grin still on my face, revealing my sharp fangs. Blackbeard clutched his wound and looked at me, with a look of hate on hio face.

"Now die here, kid" he then said as he turned around, leaving me and Zoro, who I could tell was already unconscious, on the cold and misty forest floor to die. I could only watch him disappear into the mist, as I felt more agonising pain in my body, that prevented me from thinking straight and from moving. I also felt a violent thirst in my throat, due to all of the blood that I was losing. I was helpless right now. I soon lost consciousness from the blood loss, but before I went to the realm of dreams I saw a figure appear through the mist, going towards us.


	12. Chapter 12

Here is chapter 12! I planned on posting this yesterday, but in the end I couldn't finish the chapter on time, and well, here it is. Expect chapter 13 to be up soon too! Well, thanks for all the favs, alerts and reviews that you all gave! I'm very glad that you've liked this story so far ^_^ Anyways, I'll stop and go on with the story, since I suppose it is what you want to read after the massive cliffhanger of last chapter *laughs evilly*. Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Sanji's POV:

When I was out of the tomb of the 'King of the Vampires' I immediately checked the map that I was carrying on me to see where exactly the tomb of the 'Revolutionary' Hunter was located exactly. I soon found its location, and I wasn't happy when I saw that it was quite far away, about several hours worth of travelling with a horse, and a number that was slightly bigger by a vampire with enough energy, which I had plenty at the moment thanks to feeding on some of the humans that had been defeated by us earlier and that still were inside that hall, completely abandoned by their leaders. It was normal for me now. I hadn't lived what was considered a 'long' life as a vampire yet, and I was only a century old, but I had lived long enough to become accustomed to being a vampire and all the things that this signified. I was comfortable with drinking blood, having to hide from the sunlight and all the rest, and this was something that at first I would have never dreamt of achieving when I was transformed into a vampire. I had managed to do this thanks to the support of the other vampires that were members of the Whitebeard Vampires, since most of them had similar stories in terms of how they had been transformed and to how hard it had been for them to accept what they were. There were a few of them that had to transform to avoid certain death or that had even chosen to transform, but any way all of us were comfortable with what we were right now, thankfully.

I looked around me. I was in the middle of the forest that was just outside of the tomb. It was a clear night, and there were no signs that it was going to rain or anything at all. However it was clear that it would be daytime in a few hours time, which would be a problem for me, since I had to go through one town that would be quite busy during the daytime, and that would mean that there would be quite a presence of bounty hunters and government agents that could recognise me, not to mention what would suppose to walk in broad daylight. Sure, I could cover myself with the cloak that I always carried inside my bag, neatly folded, but I wasn't very used to wearing it and it ended up restricting my movements, which made me easier to heat. It was quite hard for any vampire to become used to fighting with one of these cloaks, because they usually had to be quite big, thick and heavy, which restricted the movements of our body greatly, not to mention that we always had to be careful with maintaining the hood that had to cover our faces perfectly on its place so we didn't suffer great damages due to the sun, which further restrained our movements. We also didn't usually train with our cloaks on because we didn't like to wear them, at least most of the vampires, since there always were very few ones that were used to wearing them. They were frowned upon by other vampires, and they weren't usually seen as something important to us, just as a good thing to carry if by any chance you had to travel during daytime. I had been quite surprised to see today that hunter, that clearly was a vampire, to fight so well with his cloak on, that was thicker, bigger and heavier than the normal ones, so well, quickly and swiftly and with such strength without even revealing a part of his body or with the hood that was a part of his cloak and that covered his face moving a single bit. It was impressive, since this was something extremely unusual to see. That hunter was a very strong man with a very good training, and he seemed to be an expert with hunter fighting techniques, and to this expertise the natural agility and strength of a vampire was to be added, which made him a very powerful individual, even if he didn't know any vampire fighting techniques, which I suspected that he did. He had fought very well with the cloak on and already seemed close to invincible with them on, and these were always a limiting factor, so I didn't even want to imagine how powerful he would be without wearing them on. It could be enough to make me shudder, and I was considered to be a strong vampire, maybe not a s strong as Ace or Marco were, but I was quite decent fighting, just to say the least.

"I better get going" I thought, after I had finally identified the way in which I should go to get to the tomb of the King of the Vampires. It would be a long walk, but if I tried to be as quick as I could I could be able to reach my destiny as the day started, which would be quite a good time to arrive there, since it would take some time to reach the chamber where the real tomb of the vampire king's body was at and where the scriptures were too at, that not counting any additional fights that I would have to fight once I was inside, which seemed very probable seeing how I had had to fight on the tomb of the King of the Vampires. I looked again at the direction that I would have to travel though once more and then I started to run through it as fast as I could, decided to get to the tomb of the 'Revolutionary' Hunter as soon as possible so I could return with Whitebeard and give him what he had ordered me to get and all the additional information that I had gathered, starting by the fact that government agents and vampires had attacked me while I was inside one of the tombs and ending with the impressive individual that I had met inside the tomb of the King of the Vampires and the fact that he was a vampire. I grinned as I thought of the success that I would surely have in this mission. I would let nothing stop or defeat me. Absolutely nothing. I would successfully deliver the scriptures to Whitebeard and nothing would stop me. Absolutely nothing.

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Luffy's POV:

When I finally woke up again and abandoned the world of sleepless dreams I found myself lying on a bed inside a room that seemed to be very familiar, but that I couldn't remember exactly. The room was full with the smell of medicines and other similar things. I looked around me, and found Zoro lying, still asleep, on a bed next to mine, completely covered with bandages. I stared at him for quite a long time, as I remembered what had happened before we had fallen unconscious. I still remembered it clearly. Blackbeard the wounds and the tomb that had been blown up completely. Yes, the memory was still fresh in my mind, and I swear that I could still smell the thick scent of explosives in the air. After some time of staring I decided to try and get up and do something productive. I was wearing only the trousers that I usually wore beneath my thick cloak, and my whole torso was bandaged with slightly bloodied bandages. Zoro's however had more blood on them, and he was also covered with even more bandages. It was no wonder, since werewolves suffered a lot with wounds made with silver weapons. It was said that unless treated quickly and with the correct ingredients the wound made with a silver weapon would continue to grow, and eventually cause a quick death, and it was known that if the wounds were too bad the werewolf would die, even with the fast healing and resistance that they always possessed. Silver was lethal to werewolves.

I was almost on my feet when the door opened, and a very familiar reindeer walked into the room.

"Don't move! Lie down or your wounds will re-open again!" He shouted.

I grinned and did as he said. "Chopper" I said with a huge grin on my face, as I greeted my friend. Chopper was a member of the hunters, more specifically of the medic division, and was known to be a very good doctor. I had been treated by him several times and he was also a very good friend. "I'm glad to see you again" I then added, causing the now small reindeer to blush lightly. He had always been like this.

"I come to change your bandages, Luffy. And Zoro's too. You were lucky that Kureha and I found you before. Who knows what would have happened to both of you if you had remained there, you were both seriously wounded after all" Chopper said as he went towards the bed where I was currently sitting at, while carrying quite a number of medicines and medical equipment. "Tell me, Luffy. What happened to both of you?" Chopper then asked curiously.

"We were going to complete a mission when we came across Blackbeard" I replied easily.

Chopper looked at me, impressed. "You came across him and you didn't die? Impressive!" He said, with a half admiring tone of voice and a horrified one. Blackbeard was known to be a deadly vampire, that killed all of his victims mercilessly.

I nodded, and continued looking at Chopper as he went towards my bed, and then started changing my bandages quickly and accurately. "Luffy, I recommend you don't move much since the wound could re open again, and you know how bad blood loss would be to you" Chopper then said, as he started going towards Zoro.

"Chopper, where are my clothes?" I then asked the small reindeer. I was only wearing my trousers now, and it unnerved me slightly to not be wearing my trademark straw hat, my shirt or my heavy cloak. I had grown so accustomed to them after all.

"They are at the changing room. You already know where it is" Chopper said quickly, as he started treating Zoro.

I nodded, thanked him, and then made my way to the other room, soon putting on my clothes and my straw hat, but not putting on my cloak as of now. I then went back to the room, where Zoro was still being treated by Chopper, and then lied back on t he bed, just to start staring at the ceiling completely lost in my thoughts while I fiddled with the medallion that always was hanging from my neck and that gave me such a wide range of memories.

Many hours passed until Zoro finally woke up. I wouldn't know how many, but I fed twice before he finally woke up. When this happened he opened his eyes slowly, like he always did when he woke up after he slept, and looked around him, first trying to guess why he was here and then remembering where exactly he was. He then sat, and then felt the wounds on his body.

"That man was brutal" He muttered, as he felt his wounds and remembered what had happened.

I didn't say anything at all, finding nothing to respond to my best friend. I felt ashamed that I hadn't been able to protect him from that man, and that we had both ended up severely wounded because of him, but at least we hadn't died. We had been lucky then.

"That tomb was completely destroyed, wasn't it?" Zoro then asked.

I nodded, confirming his thoughts.

"We won't be able to get anything from then, so what will we do now?" Zoro then asked me.

I looked at him, and was about to reply when suddenly someone entered the room we had both been lying at for god knows how long. "You will be going nowhere right now. You first need to heal enough to stand a chance. You have no idea how serious your wounds where" The woman that had just entered, Doctor Kureha, said with a commanding tone of voice.

"But we have to get to Shanks!" I immediately responded.

"And how will you? You know that to get to him you will have to travel, and by travelling you will unavoidably have to risk fighting and have to hide yourselves from unwanted eyes, and you know that to do that you must be completely healed, since your blood will attract attention" Kureha then said. "So you better rest here until you are fully healed, both of you" She then added, as she started turning around to leave. When she was at the door she added something else though. "Don't worry though, Shanks already knows that you are with me" She said, before she left the room. I closed my eyes and opened them up again several times, as I started staring at the roof again. This was going to be a boring wait, even if I knew that it would only take several days for us to fully heal.

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Sanji's POV:

When I finally got to the tomb of the 'revolutionary' Hunter I was very surprised. There wasn't a thing left. Not even the memorial that could be seen on the surface was left. There was nothing left, and it was all destroyed. There was a thick smell of explosives in the air, that told that the whole place had been intentionally blown up by someone. The floor of the forest had collapsed, and there were several burn marks on the floor on several places. It was all desolated.

"I doubt that the scriptures are inside the tomb then" I muttered, as I started walking around the place, closely looking at where the 'tomb' should be and thinking about what I should do right now. I had been prepared to not be defeated by anyone to get the scriptures, but this was entirely different. Since everything had been destroyed there was no possibility of me finding what I wanted, since it was all rubble now, and there was an extremely high chance for the scriptures here to have been taken by whoever that destroyed this place.

"What should I do now?" I wondered aloud as I sat on the ground, as I stared at the collapsed terrain and smelt the thick smell of explosives. My mission would not be able to be finished, but I had managed to get one set of scriptures at least. I would surely manage nothing by staying here, so the most intelligent thing to do would be to return to Whitebeard and give him what I had managed to get.

"I'll better return then" I muttered as I got up and started going towards the nearest village so I could then know where I should go to meet Whitebeard and give him the scripture that I had managed to get.

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Marco's POV

I soon got out of the place where I had met the leader of the hunters, the "Red-Haired" Shanks to give him that message from Whitebeard. It was good that he had also noticed the strange happenings between the other vampire groups and the government, and that he had also sent in turn one of his men to talk to Whitebeard and give him another message, which he had revealed to have been similar to the one I had to give him. Whitebeard had ordered me to tell the leader of the hunters that he wanted to meet him in a week's time, due to the mysterious behaviour that had been seen in the government and other vampire groups and to decide how to act at the very real menace on the groups due to this. Shanks had agreed to meet in a week's time after all, and I was happy that he had agreed quite easily, he had been thinking about the very same thing after all and had probably also planned to chose a similar time for the meeting he also wanted to have. I was amazed at how they both had thought of the very same thing at the same time. It was clear that they both had thought about this in a similar way and knew that this could have happened. Both groups had been bitter enemies for a very long time, and many members had continuously challenged each other tried to defeat a member of the other group. Several of us were infamous because of this, several of their group and of ours. I had my share of fame, and I knew that many of the other commanders too had theirs, and several hunters had massive reputations for never being defeated, and for defeating many powerful vampires of our group. One hunter specifically was quite hated in our group for being very strong and defeating many of the commanders with ease and other members, if I remember correctly he was called the 'Straw hat' hunter, or something like that.

"I wonder how the meeting will be. I hope no one kills each other" I muttered as I went back to the headquarters of Whitebeard, where he surely would be.


	13. Chapter 13

Here is chapter 13! I really hope you enjoy it! Thank you for all the inspiring reviews, the alerts and the favs! I'm very glad that you all like this fanfic ^_^ Anyways, next chapter will be a VERY interesting one, you'll see. Anyways, on with the story

Disclaimer: I don't own one Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

Several days passed until we had healed enough so that we both could move without any problems and fight well again. It would take several days more until we were completely healed, but right as we were right now was enough for parting without Dr Kureha getting _too_ angry for us doing it. She had told us to part one we were healed enough to defend ourselves from unwanted eyes and not suffer too much in battles, that were very possible since we both had high bounties on our heads, especially me with 400 million beries, and because of what had been happening lately with other vampires and the government, that hadn't changed much our number of fights with them, but if they allied with one another against us in big numbers fighting would be troublesome. The last days had gone by quite slowly and had been very boring. There was nothing that I hated more than remaining still for such a long time, especially when I had something to finish, which I did. I had been nervous all the time with the fact that I was taking too long with giving what we had recovered to Shanks. I knew it was absolutely necessary to give it to him as soon as possible, since it would reveal once translated secrets that would be essential for us to get what we wanted and to not be delayed in the race that we knew that was happening between us and other vampire groups and probably the government, seeing how they had also been inside that tomb. It had been a hard job for Dr Kureha to make me stay inside that room, but she had managed to keep me healing in the end, much t Zoro's surprise, but I was happy that I could continue my mission now that I was almost recovered.

"We better go now, Zoro" I told my green-haired friend as I went towards the door that led out of the building I had been in for the last days. Zoro nodded, and followed me towards the door. We were already opening it when we heard a voice behind us.

"Luffy, Zoro! Where are you going?" I heard Chopper ask, with a worried tone of voice.

"Chopper, it is time for us to complete what we were ordered" I said to him as I turned around to look at him.

"But you aren't fully healed yet!" Chopper then said

"But we are well enough to go now without suffering any consequences. We will be fine in no time, and you know it Chopper" Zoro suddenly replied.

I grinned at this and then turned around. "I hope to see you see, Chopper" I told the small reindeer then ¡, as I started walking out of the room, with my cloak now on again.

"Be safe" Chopper the said, as we started walking away and towards where we knew, even with our bad sense of direction, Shanks would be waiting for us, in one of the hideouts used by the hunters. I only lifted my left arm, showing the X mark that was tattooed on it and that I knew that he also had. I heard Chopper laughing for a bit, happy, as I did this, before we finally disappeared into the night dark night.

We started walking though the abandoned meadows that surrounded the house where Chopper and Dr Kureha usually were, in complete silence. Not a sound was being made, not by either of us or by any of the animals that I knew that were hiding in the forest in fear or with killing intent. I was thinking about what had happened with Blackbeard, and I wanted to tell Shanks about it as soon as possible. Kureha had told us that he knew that we had been with her, but I was sure that she hadn't told about Blackbeard to Shanks ,since she hadn't known until after we had woken up. We were walking calmly through the meadow right now, but both of us were listening to every sound and paying attention to everything that our sense caught, trying to detect any possible enemies that were also hiding. However I knew that right now there was no one around us, thanks to several techniques that Rayleigh had taught me.

We walked for several hours, and didn't even stop when it was daytime. By then we were crossing a village, but didn't stop when quite a number of people started filling the streets and look at us curiously. I could see again those bounty hunters that seemed to be everywhere staring at us and muttering between them, with no doubt planning to attack us.

"We better get out of here quickly if we want to get away with no fights" Zoro told me, as he looked wearily at the bounty hunters. We were in a condition good enough to defend ourselves and defeat almost anyone, but we would attract too much attention and be delayed more, not to mention any other wounds that we could receive depending on their numbers.

"I don't think we will be able to without a fight" I then said to him, as I saw the bounty hunters start to move in several directions, all coordinated.

"They are going to fight us" Zoro muttered then, as he saw them doing this. "We better be prepared then" He said, as he clutched his three swords.

I nodded, and continued walking through the streets at the same calm pace in which we had been walking at before, not bothered in the least with the thought of having to fight, other than the fact that we would lose too much time. "Don't bother, I will take care of them" Then said, as we turned right and into a very busy street.

"Okay, but I will move if anything goes wrong" Zoro then said, looking at me for a brief moment.

I grinned, already knowing what I would do, and continued walking at the same speed as before right beside Zoro, feeling everything around me and knowing exactly they would try to attack us. Zoro looked at me, curiously, he knew perfectly that I already know where they were and where they would try to attack us.

"Where exactly will it be?" He asked me. He wouldn't have asked me this normally, since he had a very good sense of smell, but because we were going through a very crowded street he wasn't able to pick well individual smells to do things like these.

"Soon, only two streets away, near the other exit of the town" I replied. "They are well hidden, but once we are near you will know where they are" I then added, with a goofy grin still on my face.

We then continued walking calmly, until we were attacked by those bounty hunters, that were exactly where I had said they were. A big group of twenty charged towards us, with many swords and some guns.

"Kill them! They both have a high bounty, we will be praised by the government if we get them and hand them in!" One of them shouted, while the others cheered in agreement.

I grinned, and called from inside myself the power that Rayleigh had showed me how to use during the time that I had been with him. I glared at several of them, while using this power, and soon the attackers started falling on the ground one after another, unconscious. It had almost seemed as if some expansive waves had knocked them down, but none of the other surrounding people.

As the bounty hunters fell unconscious on the ground the surrounding people that knew nothing of this started running around, completely terrified and many screaming with horror.

"What happened to them?" One man shouted as he ran away from the scene

"Those two killed them! They are monsters! Run for your lives!" A woman screamed with a terrified tone of voice as she ran away.

I looked around me as most of the citizens on the streets ran away, scared. This would definitely attract the attention of the government agents in the city, and that wasn't too good if we wanted to remain unnoticed enough to not get into fights constantly.

"We better get out of here quickly, I bet the government agents will come soon here soon to get us" Zoro said.

I nodded, and with a laugh I started running through the streets that would take us to the outside of the city to continue going to where Shanks had told us that he would be at. Zor soon started running behind me quite close, trying to avoid being too far away from me and getting completely lost. I was quite bad with directions, but I would never be as bad as the green haired man was.

The rest of the time we were going through the city passed without any incidents or anyone daring to fight with us, which was very good. Many people eyed us with suspicion as we passed in front of them, still running, but they didn't dare to move from their positions and get closer to us to say whatever they wanted to say or do to us. We both knew that we were now being chased from afar by government agents, but we had managed to avoid all of them. Soon enough we arrived to the limits of the city, and to the forest that we would have to go through to get to the village where Shanks was. We had been lucky up until then, avoiding all the marines that had been chasing us since we had defeated quickly those bounty hunters, but when we arrived to the limits of the city our luck seemed to run out.

"Luffy, there are several guards waiting for us there" Zoro told me when we were almost out of the city, and it was true. There seemed to be quite a big group of government agents waiting for us there, prepared to fight us and to try to defeat and kill us.

"I don't feel like fighting right now" I said, as I thought about what I could do. I could fight them all easily, and with the help of Zoro we would defeat them in no time, but we could be wounded by one of them, that was something that we didn't need right now, and we would lose more time. Not to mention that more government agents would surely come to try and stop us.

"I will take care of it" Zoro suddenly said, as he stopped running. I looked at him, and saw him taking off his three swords and handing them to me. "Take care of these" He then said. I nodded, and watched him transform. It was quick, like always, but there was the usual amount of pain involved in his transformation, which made him flinch and have to support himself by putting one of his hands on the ground. The guards that we knew that were running behind us came closer, but I just stood still as Zoro started transforming.

"Go forwards" He told me, as he was already half transformed with a strained and pained voice. I nodded and started running forwards, towards the government guards. There was no doubt that this transformation was hurting Zoro still because of his wounds, that although nearly completely cured still had an effect on him. I was about to get hold of my dagger and prepare myself to punch a guard when I felt something running towards me and picking me up. I looked down and saw Zoro, in his full wolf form, running very fast. He looked at me, as if telling me to grab to his fur tightly, and I immediately did it, imagining what he wanted to do.

Zoro then ran towards the guards, and when he was at a safe distance he leaped in the air, and jumped right over them. The guards looked at us, amazed, and didn't manage to move, not expecting this at all. Zoro soon landed on the ground and then continued running out of the city. I grinned and laughed when this happened, and I could tell that Zoro was doing this too.

"Good work, Zoro" I told him with a grin, as I looked behind me and stared at the amazed faces of the guards at the doors of the city, not managing to find the strength to stop myself from laughing hard and loud. Not that I wanted to do this anyways. Zoro then decided to continue in this form, as it seemed like we would get faster towards that village like this. It was almost sunset now, and he was running through the big forest that surrounded the village we wanted to go to. Zoro still had quite some energy inside himself, even if he was wounded. The wounds he had were very clear in this form, since they weren't bandaged if he transformed in a wolf. His human clothes seemed to disappear every time he willingly transformed after all, which was something that all werewolves were capable of doing, apparently. I looked up at the sky, and I noticed that it would be a full moon in a few days. Zoro was feeling bad from this too, no doubt about that. The nearer the full moon was the worse he felt, I had learnt that over the years that I had spent with him, and this pain remained in him until one day after he had transformed. The forced transformation in the full moon was the most painful one, even more than when he transformed into a complete wolf, and no one knew exactly why. It was said to bring pure agony to the werewolf being transformed, and after it the werewolf lost the capability to think rationally like a human, and became a heartless killing beast. After the transformation the werewolf also couldn't remember anything of what had happened during the transformation. These were some of the myths surrounding werewolves, and these were completely true, as I had seen this happen many times during the times I had spent with Zoro.

Once we were almost in the village Zoro stopped running, indicating me that he wanted to change back. I nodded and got off him. In his full wolf form he was very tall and big, and reached more or less the shoulders of a fully grown up human being. Zoro then growled a bit, still in his wolf form, and started changing back into a human. He was soon in his human form again, as if nothing had happened before, but soon it was clear that he was quite exhausted, due to his silver-created wounds and the proximity of the full moon. He soon leaned forwards, as if recovering his breath.

"Luffy" He then said, as he stared right into my eyes.

I understood what he wanted, and I gave him back his three swords. Zoro smiled and soon put them where he always carried them, bundled up with his green haramaki. He then remained like that, leaning forwards and trying to recover his breath fast. I then got closer to him and put one of his hands over my shoulders, helping him to move more easily. Zoro looked at me and smiled with gratitude for helping him. I smiled back and continued moving forwards with him, both of us determined to get to the place where Shanks was right now.

It was night time by now, and the village was deserted, which made us quite lucky, as this meant that probably there would be no one suspecting us, and we both would go more easily undetected. We walked slowly through the streets of the village, going towards the entrance to the hiding place. We reached it in few minutes, and we both showed our tattoos, that identified us as hunters, and the door that led towards the hiding place then opened, letting us to go into the corridors that it hid and then closed behind u s. We went through the dark and damp corridors, and soon arrived to the main hall, where Shanks would be at. We opened the door and entered the room, soon seeing Usopp and Nami sitting around Shanks and the man who was second in command, Ben Beckman.

"You finally arrived" Nami said with a smile as soon as we had entered the room. "It took you long enough, did you get lost?" She then added, which made Zoro start to fume, angry.

"We ran into some trouble, that's all!" Zoro shouted, quite annoyed.

I laughed at this, and Usopp did too. Soon even Zor and Nami laughed too.

"I'm glad you are both okay, Dr Kureha told me that she found both of you very wounded and that you were several days with her" Shanks said.

Zoro and I nodded, and we turned to face the red-haired man.

"What happened exactly to you?" Shanks then asked.

"When we had arrived to the tomb of the 'Revolutionary' hunter we came across Blackbeard, and the whole tomb was also blown up" Zoro explained easily.

The other four looked at both us, horrified. "Blackbeard?" Usopp said, as his legs shook a little. Nami just stared at both of us with horror, while Shanks and Ben just looked at us with surprise.

"We manage to wound him a little, but in the end he defeated us, blew up the place and took the scriptures from the inside of the tomb. However he didn't get his hands on the scriptures that we found inside the grave of the 'King of the Vampires'" I explained as I handed Shanks the images we had taken of the original scriptures.

Shanks nodded, understanding everything. "Good job" Shanks told both of us as he got hold of the images. "Where are the original ones though?" He then asked.

I grinned before I answered. "When we were inside the tomb we came across a vampire from the Whitebeard Vampires that was fighting against other vampires and humans members of the government. We fought with him and in the end we gave him the original copy of the scriptures" I explained.

Shanks looked at me, thinking carefully. "So it happened again, didn't it?" He muttered. "Both the government and other vampire groups knew the location of the scriptures and were trying to get them too, and they succeeded with the other ones" He muttered. "How did they know though?" He then mused aloud. "Whitebeard knew of the location too, he must have known of it through that translator, but how did Blackbeard know? There must be spies in our organisation or in Whitebeard's" Shanks then continued muttering, as we all looked at him. "Well, no matter. All of you successfully completed your missions. Luffy and Zoro, good job. We will translate the scriptures immediately. Nami, your job was very well completed and you weren't even detected, and Usopp, good job too. We have managed to collect quite a lot of essential information with your that has helped us discover how to continue now" Shanks said. Both Zoro and I looked at Shanks, waiting for him to continue explaining. "I already told you about the possibility of several groups of vampires having allied with the government, well Nami did a very good job at getting the proof we needed when she infiltrated the main headquarters of the government" Shanks explained. I continued looking at Shanks, not too bothered, but Zoro was shocked by this. "And because of this we will meet with the Whitebeard Vampires very soon to discuss what to do now, since they have also been worried about this" Shanks explained. We all nodded and then continued listening at Shanks as he explained the details. Little did we know that a very similar meeting was taking place at the headquarters of the Whitebeard Vampires.


	14. Chapter 14

Here is chapter 14! Thank you for all the reviews, favs and alerts that you did on last chapter! I'm very glad that you liked it ^_^ Well, things will be getting interesting now, you'll see. Anyways, on with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Eiichiro Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

The meeting with Shanks quickly ended, and soon we all know what to do. We were going to have to go to a small and far away town to meet with the Whitebeard Vampires, in one of their hiding places. The town was one not very known, and with a very small presence from the government since it was quite far away. This would make it the perfect place to have a meeting at, since there would be very small chances of having to fight against many government agents, that would be a problem if the meeting was going to be held at another town closer to the Imperial City, since the leaders of the hunters and of the Whitebeard Vampires were going to be there, and it would be a golden opportunity, if they knew about the meeting, to try and destroy both organisations to ensure the supremacy of the government. That was at least what Shanks had told us, along with the location of where the meeting would take place. We had been told to go to the village when it was morning, and to stay in this base during that time. We would probably arrive there at night time, and we would end up sleeping inside that base for a few days until everything was decided between the two groups. We all knew that it would be something difficult, since both groups had attacked each other several times and there was quite some hate between many members for past deeds, and since the meeting was purely out of necessity it wasn't going to be much better. There was also a huge rivalry going on between Shanks and Whitebeard, or so it was said between some people of both groups, according to Nami, so it was bound to be a hard meeting, with a big possibility of a fight.

I was currently walking beside Zoro , Usopp and Nami as we made our way to where the meeting would take place. The four of us had been allowed to assist to the meeting, and Shanks was also going to go, for obvious reasons. He was going to get to the town through another way and not with us though, as he had said that he could be targeted more easily than us. He was also going to go with another hunter that he had known for quite some time, called 'Lucky Roo', and that I had met on several occasions. We didn't know Shanks's reasons for letting us go and not other hunters, but it was probably due to what we had done to help the organisation recently. We were all now in perfect physical conditions, or in Zoro's and my case in almost perfect physical conditions. Our wounds were almost completely healed by now, and it wouldn't be long until we were in a perfect physical condition once again. As we were right now we would surely be able to defeat in no time any opponent that we came across with no problems, which was good. I could almost hear Dr Kureha screaming at us for not waiting until we were fully healed though.

We had been walking nonstop for most of the day, and Nami and Usopp were starting to get visibly tired of walking. We hadn't eaten anything yet, and it was already taken a toll on my human hunter friends, on my green haired friend and on myself, but in a different way to them three. I had fed myself before going out, out of a recommendation of Shanks, that said that during the meeting it would be more difficult to feed and to not be detected and seen as a vampire, which wouldn't be something very good to happen. However I was growing a bit thirsty by now, but I had decided that I would try and contain myself from feeding until we reached that town, and that if I needed urgently to feed then that I would do so there, to avoid any problems. I knew Zoro was looking at me from time to time, but I wouldn't make him sacrifice himself like he had done last time in that other city. I chuckled as I remembered what he had called me so many times. I was indeed an "Anorexic vampire", seeing what I constantly did. I had ended up being quite resistant to not drinking blood in several days, something that usually made vampires feel horribly bad. My record was at being one week and a half without having anything, but by the end of it I was too weak to fight well.

We continued walking towards that city, talking between us and laughing quite a lot. We had become very good friends over time, and even if Zoro and I were so different from them this had not stopped us from becoming great friends, which was very good. However I had sometimes felt anxious to be around them when I was thirsty, due to fear that I would attack them and even kill them, but Zoro had assured me that if that ever happened he would make sure to control me, just like I did when it was a full moon, which also was to come in several days.

Quite some time passed until we finally reached the town where the meeting was going to be at. We all remembered that once we were in the town we would have to wait for Shanks and find him, or let him find us. Of course we had no idea how to do this, so in the end we decided to go into a bar and wait for him to appear, which seemed the most logical thing to do, since we didn't know when he would arrive to the town or if he had even arrived yet. Anyways, it would be good to rest of r a bit in a bar and eat something too to calm our hunger.

We all sat on a table, and we quickly ordered something, that is, meat. And quite a lot of it too, after Nami revised the prices over and over again even if she knew that I had a thing for not paying and it would probably affect all of us. As soon as the food we ordered arrived we all started eating at an incredible speed, that made some of the other few people that were inside the bar to look at us, amused. As we ate some a person entered the bar, covered by a cloak. He didn't look comfortable on it, but he was wearing it nonetheless.

"He seems to be a..." Nami started saying.

"A vampire" I completed, as I stared at the man curiously.

The man didn't looked at us for some brief moments, at me for a brief moment with an interested face, since I was also covered, and for a longer time at Zoro, because of what he was, with a surprised face. He then sat on another table, and scanned us, as if he knew something, but we soon decided to not pay too much attention to the man and instead continuing our meal happily. If the man wanted to fight us he would have a fight, but not now. We soon started talking again, and having a good time like we generally did, but some moments after we had finished eating we started wondering again how we would find Shanks. he had said that we would go to the hiding place together after all.

"How are we going to find him?" Usopp said aloud

"Who knows where he is" Zoro muttered "He will probably find us in the end" He then added.

"Yes, but we aren't doing much by staying here" Nami then said "It would take less if we went out to find him" She then added.

I tuned out of the conversation as I started to think about it. It would be hard to find Shanks, but if we stayed here someone could find us, and I didn't like the vampire who had just entered the bad and the way he was looking at us. Not a bit. "Let's go out and find him" I then said, with a grin on my face, which made Usopp look at me, surprised, and trying to say something in return, but knowing that if I had said that we were going out to look for Shanks no one was going to make me change my mind. We were about to get up when a few guards barged into the bar, shouting things.

"They are here! Capture them!" The leader of the squad shouted, as they all started going towards us, and some towards the other man that had entered the bar some time ago.

They started running towards us, and I heard Zoro sigh, clearly annoyed. "They just always want to try and capture us, don't they?" He muttered, as he got up from his chair and got out a sword and quickly defeated three guards. The rest of us got up too, and soon started defeating one after another the guards that had entered the room, me just punching them out of the way, Usopp with his 'black kabuto' and Nami with her 'Perfect Clima Tact'. It wasn't long before all of the guards that had come after us were defeated, and we took this as a perfect opportunity to get away from the bar to find Shanks. As we ran away I saw the other man that had entered the bar quickly fight the guards that had come after him quickly, and I wondered who he was, since the guards had tried to attack him.

We ran for some time, until we were completely sure that no guards were going to follow us.

"They found us out! They knew about the meeting all along, but why didn't they send more men to get us?" Usopp said then, while panting.

"They may be encountered someone stronger to fight" Nami answered.

Our eyes widened at this. The only person that was important enough to divert all the attention to itself was...

"Shanks!" We shouted.

"We have to find him quickly before more come after us" Zoro then muttered. We nodded and started running through the streets, trying to see and hear any signs of Shanks either walking around peacefully or fighting guards. Minutes after we found him fighting quite a number of government agents at the main street of the city.

"There he is!" Usopp shouted then, as he pointed at Shanks.

Shanks, probably hearing us, chuckled and gave the definitive blow to the remaining guards that were trying to defeat him. Seconds later he turned around and calmly walked towards us, with a grin plastered on his face. I grinned too, before greeting the man that could be considered as my hero.

"Let's go to that meeting now, shall we?" He then said to us, as the four of us grinned. He then turned around and started going through a street, while we followed him closely as we started making our way towards where the meeting would take place.

We walked for several minutes, and surprisingly no more guards came to attack us, and no one seemed to pay attention to us. It was a mystery how this happened, since we weren't the most normally dressed group, and all of us carried weapons, that were quite eye catching, excepting my case, but my heavy cloak was what made me quite eye catching too. As we walked through the crowded city we looked for what Usopp had told us that Whitebeard had said that would tell them where the hiding place exactly was. Whitebeard had given the street where the entrance was, and then some hints as to where the entrance was exactly. Once we had found the entrance one of his members would guide us to the room where the meeting would take place, since the path towards that room was apparently very well defended with traps and similar things.

Once we had arrived to the street that Whitebeard had told that was where the hiding place was located we started going up and down through it, trying to find where the entrance was at exactly. After some time of searching with no result we all stopped and started discussing the signs that Whitebeard had told us to recognise the entrance. I, of sourse, ended up tuning out of this and looking around me.

"Usopp, what where the locating signs?" Shanks asked the black haired teen.

"He said that it was 'obvious to a trained eye', and it to be surrounded by some known symbols" Usopp answered. Nami started muttering the clues, as she tried to figure out the location.

It was then when something caught my eye. I went towards it, completely ignoring the questions that were asked to me by the other four, that wondered what I wanted to do. I went then towards a wall on one side of the street of a house and started touching it on several places. Suddenly the sound of machinery was heard, and then the wall moved downwards, revealing a staircase. The four of them ran towards me.

"How did you know that, Luffy?" Nami asked

"Know what?" I replied, not understanding what she was asking me.

She then muttered something and started descending the staircase, as Shanks started laughing, followed by Zoro, who did the same.

I started descending the staircase, and once I had entered the wall that had 'descended' before suddenly came back up again, trapping us inside. We then started descending through the dimly lit staircase for about a minute, until we reached a hall with various corridors. Inside this hall there was the cloaked vampire that we had seen at the bar.

"You're here at last!" He said, with a light tone of voice. "Follow me, I will take you to where the meeting will take place" He then added, as he started walking through one of the corridors, stopping for a bit on a wall to press some parts of it to deactivate a trap.

Shanks chuckled when he saw the man, recognising who he was. "Marco" He muttered then, making the vampire turn around to look at the red haired man.

"The one and only" the vampire named Marco said, without bothering to take off his cloak or hood, but at obvious discomfort with these. He then continued walking, pressing parts of the wall every once in a while and walking through certain parts of the corridor other times. I felt grateful that he was there to take us to the room, since we would have surely been caught in a trap long ago if we had gone to the room alone. "I suppose that you are the 'Straw Hat', the 'Vampire Hunter', the 'Buglar Cat' and the'Sniper king' hunters? Along with famous Shanks and Lucky Roo" Marco said some time after we had started following him.

"Yes" I immediately answered, not really knowing why the man had asked this.

The vampire, Marco, chuckled. "Interesting" He muttered then. "Be careful then, since some members of the group don't precisely like you, and won't doubt to attack you" He then said again.

I didn't answer, and instead just continued looking at the man as we walked to the end of the corridor and a door began to be seen in the distance.

"We're here" He said once we had reached the door, before pressing another part of the wall, which caused the door to open. "There will be no interruptions now, please enter" He said then, as he waited for us to enter the room, to then enter after us.

We entered the room, Shanks leading the way and then me and Zoro right after him. The room wasn't too well lit, but it was well enough to distinguish several figures at the other side of the room. Five, to be precise. I watched them with interest, trying to recognise any of them.

Marco then walked towards the figures. "They are here pops" He then said.

This cause the figure in the centre to chuckle, and then got up. "Welcome, Shanks and hunters. Now, shall this meeting begin?" He then asked.

Shanks took one step towards the enormous figure that had just stood on his feet. "Let the meeting being, Whitebeard" He said with a serious tone of voice.


	15. Chapter 15

Here is chapter 15! I hope you like it ^_^ Things ARE getting interesting, you'll see ;D Well, I don't have much to say here, so please enjoy this chapter and thanks for all the reviews, favs and alerts!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story

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Ace's POV:

The town chosen to held that meeting was quite far away, but nonetheless we all knew perfectly well the way towards the town, and had been there a couple of times during the time we had been members of the Whitebeard Vampires. Whitebeard had chosen the meeting to be held there because of the small presence of government agents that that town had, and consequently of the smaller chances that of us having to fight a big group of guards sin that town compared to the chances of us having to fight guards at other towns. This had been that main reason for choosing the town and the hiding place we had there. The travel to there wouldn't be too hard, since we all knew where it was exactly, and the correct way of entering and other secret passages that led into the hideout, but we would have to conceal ourselves well during our travel towards the hideout so that we weren't tracked by guards or recognised and being forced to fight a battalion of them, which would be quite troublesome for us.

Right now I was travelling alone towards the town and the hideout, eager to arrive there already and get done with the meeting. I knew it was essential for us now due to that pact that some groups of vampires, led by one man, had with the government, but this thought didn't help me accept this fact anymore than the other reasoning's did. It was essential, and it would also prove useful to not have to fight the hunters, but it felt like it was a wrong and dirty pact. Something unnatural and that shouldn't be done. We vampires had been fighting the hunters for centuries, and long before since I myself had turned into a vampire. Ever since we had started existing there had been fights between the vampires and the hunters, and due to this countless lives had been lost due to them, and yet here we were, about to do a pact with them and sign peace with the very ones that had defeated and killed members of our group . It felt like we were about to surrender ourselves to them without fighting, and I didn't like that. Not one bit. Marco had gone on and on for ages, trying to explain why we should be glad of doing this instead of seeking revenge, but his efforts had been fruitless, as it had been expected. He had known from the start that I wouldn't accept this that easily, and that only Pop's orders of me not attacking them and accepting this were the ones stopping me from doing anything, at least yet. If they said anything against Pops I swore that I would make them pay for it, no matter who that person was or what the consequences were. Yes, I would definitely make them pay.

I walked for several hours during broad daylight towards the city, and I had to wear my cloak, again, something that I also didn't like one bit. It was uncomfortable, and it limited my movements too. I was about to arrive to the city, which made me happy, since that meant that soon I would be at the meeting place without this bothersome cloak that I had to wear. I didn't know exactly how the others had decided to travel, but I was sure that they would arrive okay to the meeting place. No person could stop us. No one. I luckily hadn't encountered any guards during my travel to the city, and even as I entered the city and walked through its streets the few guards that I saw didn't pay any attention whatsoever to me, and instead seemed to be concentrated on another issue.

"In the main street!" I heard one of them shout, as they ran across a street. It made me feel curious, what was happening at the main street? Anyhow I was grateful that whatever that was it was making the guards not notice me, even if I was quite a known person and was even wearing my trademark hat. If I hadn't been wearing this cloak I would have been recognised by them quite quickly.

"I just have to concentrate on getting to the hideout as quickly as possible" I muttered, as I continued walking through the streets, towards the one where one of the entrances was located.

It was about half an hour after entering the city that I finally managed to get to the street, after delaying a bit after having a random narcoleptic episode and incredibly not being found by any government agents whatsoever. I looked around me, making sure that no one was following me or paying attention to what I was doing, and as soon as I was sure that no one was looking at me I went towards the secret entrance, opened it and entered it, soon going through the long labyrinth of corridors that took to the main room, where the meeting would take place. I was careful not to activate any traps, since that could prove deadly even for a vampire, and so I decided to walk slowly towards the room to make sure that I didn't activate any of them. I was sure that I remembered where t hey all were, but it had been quite long since I had last been here and I wanted to be sure that I didn't make any false steps and activate a trap.

It wasn't long until I reached the room where the meeting would be held, and as soon as I finally did this I opened the door and entered the room. It was very shadowy, and I could barely distinguish the people that were inside the room, and I could only see their silhouettes. I could recognise some of them though, Whitebeard was sitting on what seemed to be the centre of the table, and I could recognise Sanji, Vista and Jozu sitting around him.

"Ace, you're finally here!" Vista shouted as soon as I came in.

I grinned and took off my cloak. "Yes" I replied, not bothering to say anything else. I then started making my way towards the table, as I placed my trademark hat on my head. I then sat down on another chair, and greeted pops like I always did. As soon as I had done this I looked around me, and noticed that only one person was missing.

"Where is Marco?" I asked then.

"He has to guide the hunters towards the room, to make sure it is them and that they don't fall on any traps" Sanji explained.

"Oh" I only said, as I made myself comfortable on my chair, feeling slightly sleepy. If the hunters didn't arrive soon I would surely fall asleep. Minutes passed, and we all animatedly chatted between us, until we heard a door opening in the distance. Following that distant unknown voices were heard, the only one that I recognised being Marco's voice. Quite a number of minutes passed until footsteps were heard from outside of the room.

"We're here" I heard Marco say, which was followed by another mechanical 'click'. As the door opened he then added something else "There will be no interruptions now, please enter", he said, before I noticed him entering the room, after the hunters had entered it. "They are here pops" He said then, once all the hunters were inside the room, making his way towards the table we were sitting behind of and then sitting with us.

I stared at the six figures that had entered the room with curiosity, dislike and many more emotions. I didn't trust them, and they had a strange atmosphere around them. I could also barely see them, but I could recognise a few of them out of their silhouettes. I knew that two of them were Shanks and Lucky Roo, that were quite known hunters, and then there was the woman that I had met at the government headquarters. The other three I didn't know. One of them I was sure that was a human, another one seemed to be a werewolf, interestingly enough, and the third one... he was obviously wearing a thick and heavy cloak that covered all of his body and head with an equally heavy and thick hood, and on top of this he was wearing what seemed to be a straw hat. I had never seen him, but I had heard stories about him. He was one of the strongest hunters there was, and he had defeated and killed many vampires in missions, of various groups. He also famously defied the government many times, but those were the only things that were known about him. He had also defeated several of vampires from the Whitebeard Vampires, brought some of them very close to death and killed once two. He was what I would consider an enemy. However, I couldn't feel what he was. I couldn't feel if he was a vampire, a dhampir, a human, a werewolf or something else entirely. I simply couldn't feel it, and by the looks that my friends were giving beside me towards the man I knew that they couldn't detect what he was either. It made me curious and annoyed at the same time, and I could just wonder what he was.

Whitebeard then told the leader of the hunters, Shanks, that the meeting would now start, and soon received an agreeing response from their leader. The hunters then went forwards and sat on some chairs that were on the other side of the table that we were sitting behind of. Since the table was square we each had one of the hunters in front of us, and we each stared for quite an amount of time at the person in front of us. I knew Whitebeard was right in front of Shanks, but I didn't bother who was in front of my friends, and instead just stared at the one that was in front of me, that was the man with the straw hat. There was something familiar about him, but I couldn't exactly place what it was. I wanted to know what he looked like, but because of his hood and the darkness of the room I couldn't manage to discover it. I felt inside me some urges to fight him, due to what he had done to several of my nakama, but I contained myself, remembering pops words.

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Luffy's POV:

I couldn't help but stare at the man in front of me. There was something familiar about him, but what was it? I couldn't see his face, due to the darkness of the room, his hat and the own darkness created by the hat and the hood that covered my face. I started paying attention to Shanks and Whitebeard as they spoke, but I couldn't take my eyes off the mysterious man, and I could also feel the man's stare on me. I had heard things about him. He had once killed a group of hunters that I was familiar with and defeated many others. My knowledge about him only reached so far, but that was enough to make me grit my teeth and feel anger bubble up inside me.

"You know why you are here" Shanks then said, as he stared intently at the massive figure that was Whitebeard.

"Yes, we both are here for the same reasons" Whitebeard then answered. "The government and the other vampire groups, the scriptures and a possible alliance, along with other things" Whitebeard then finished saying. Both men had a dead serious tone of voice that would have frozen on the spot any normal human that hadn't been prepared enough.

"We both have the same information about those issues" Shanks then said. "Both the same scriptures and information about the government's betrayal. Shanks then added "Thanks to some funny coincidences" He added. "We both have also suffered attacks from the government and some vampires, so we are both in the same position of vulnerability. Both of us know that an alliance between us is the most sensible thing to do right now" He then finished saying.

I saw Whitebeard nodding. "If we don't do an alliance soon we will be attacked in massive numbers by the government and other vampire groups that had been absorbed by another one, and risk being defeated and losing our lives" Whitebeard then said.

"What has happened exactly to the other vampire groups?" Shanks then asked. "I am sure I don't have as much information about it as you do" He then added.

"The other two groups lost contact with us some time ago, a few days ago it was revealed that they had been defeated and massacred by another group that not so long ago was small, lead by Blackbeard" Whitebeard then said.

I saw Shanks nod, and I couldn't help but gulp as I felt rage build inside me, filling me with pure killing intent towards the man that had done so many things to me and to...

"Relax" I then heard my green haired friend say in a low voice as he gently placed a hand on y shoulder. I looked at him, accepting what he had said, and tried to cal m myself. It wouldn't be good if I was angry here and wishing to fight. I felt the eyes of the other people in the room on me, or more specifically those of the vampires in front of me.

"It is important that we defeat Blackbeard soon, or we will have problems" Shanks then said.

Whitebeard replied, and I continued paying attention to the conversation that was going on between the two. It was quite tense. As time went by I couldn't help but to start to drift off and pay little attention to the conversation, that although important wasn't leading to anything conclusive, and to start thinking about other things. After a long time both men stopped talking, and then decided to have a break to allow all of us to rest, since the travel to the city had been quite long and better decisions would be reached after having some rest.

We all got up from the table as soon as this was said, and then I looked around me, as did the other hunters excepting Shanks, trying to guess what to do now.

"Take them to the rooms they will stay in" Whitebeard then said. "I will talk a bit more with Red-Haired Shanks" He then said. I saw the vampires nod and then going towards another part of the room.

"Follow us" One of the vampires said. I turned around and I noticed that Lucky Roo and the vampire that I believed to be Marco had stayed behind, beside the two leaders.

The four of us got up and decided to follow the vampire that had told us to follow him, and that was waiting for us right in front of a door that I hadn't noticed earlier, as some of the other vampires entered the room. Once the four of us had entered the room we were surprised to find a room that was better lit than the other one, but that still didn't provide enough illumination as for us to see each other clearly. It was a massive oval shaped room, that had nothing inside it but several separate stands. On them some of the other vampires that had been inside the previous room were sitting, talking between themselves.

"Creepy" I heard Usopp whisper into my ear.

I didn't have time to reply to this, as soon one of the vampires had replied before I had. "Not as much as you, human" One of the vampires said, with a half teasing half cruel tone of voice.

Usopp's legs shook, and as soon as this happened another vampire, the one that had been sitting in front of me, said something before Usopp could reply anything to the other vampire.

"And you call yourself a hunter?" He asked, with a mocking tone of voice. "I cannot believe that you hunters can be like that and remain alive" he then added.

I gritted my teeth, not standing how the vampires were talking and treating us. The man that was leading us to what would be our rooms was still walking, and being followed by Usopp, Zoro, Nami and I, but I suddenly stopped and looked at the vampire that had been sitting in front of me earlier.

"What do you know about hunters?" I asked the man, as I stared at where he was. This caused the other people in the room to stare at both of us, with wonder and a bit of fright.

"That you are murderers" he easily replied.

"Not more than you are" I then answered.

"You have killed thousands of vampires and other humans because of disagreeing with your aims!" The man then said, with a lout tone of voice, as he got up from the stands.

"You have killed many more hunters and humans for the same reasons!" I said back.

"You don't give a second opportunity to anyone!" The man shouted, as he started walking towards me.

"You destroy human lives and turn people into monsters" I then said back, feeling the scared stares that the people around the room were giving us and also walking towards the man.

"Who did you call a monster?" The man shouted then, with a mocking tone of voice.

"Vampires!" I shouted back.

"You are the monsters!" He then replied.

"I would like to see that!" I shouted.

"Oh yeah?" He then shouted back.

By now we were a few metres apart from each other, and while we couldn't see each other's faces we both knew that the other was staring at each other. We came closer to each other then, both aiming a punch at the other. We both managed to hit each other, which made both of us to be thrown backwards by the enormous force of the hit, and crush into a wall. We both got up, muttering curses at each other, and about to start seriously fighting. The other people in the room could just stare with shock as we started to fight each other, forgetting what our respective leaders had told us about this.


	16. Chapter 16

Here is chapter 16! I absolutely loved writing this one ^_^ I have been waiting so long for this one too. Next chapter will be an interesting one too, but oh well. I hope you enjoy this one!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do, however, own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

When I felt the vampire hit me I didn't expect at first to be thrown back and to crash into a wall because of the sheer force of the punch he gave me, and by the way he was getting up now from the floor I could tell that he too didn't expect the same thing to happen to him because of the strong hit that I had given him. He expected me to have the same strength as a human? Good luck for him then. I wasn't as weak as I seemed, and that had always tended to surprise the people that I fought with, and lead them to an unavoidable defeat. The thick and heavy cloak that I wore hid how strong I was, and in case that I wasn't wearing that then my clothes also did that. I knew that the man that had attacked me now was quite strong, he wore no shirt after all and all his muscles were revealed with this, and yet he still had been surprised by my attack.

"This won't be too long" I thought, as I got up from the floor that I had fallen onto after crashing into the wall. I felt on me the stares of the other people that were inside the room, full of surprise. Many of the other people in the room were so surprised that they weren't reacting right now, or didn't know how to. I had no doubt that they would try to stop us from fighting, so I would have to do this quickly if I wanted to show the man what was true. I could almost see right behind the man my friends behind that other vampire that had been guiding us, and on another side of the room the stare of the vampire that I had met inside the tomb of the 'King of the Vampires', Sanji. That seemed to be giving me and the man that had attacked me interested looks.

Once I was on my feet I dashed towards the vampire that had attacked me, that also was on his feet, and then punched him as strong as I could, which made him to be thrown backwards and into a wall again, taken off guard by my speed.

"Quicker than I imagined" I heard him mutter as he coughed and got on his feet.

I got into a defensive position, prepared to resist any attack that he gave me. Soon I noticed him running towards me, with all the speed that was to be expected from a vampire. He wasn't holding an weapons right now, but I sensed that he could though. He was bound to have at least one on him in case of a fight started and he needed to use it. He lifted his arm, to punch me, and just when he was about to do so I managed to block his attack, just in time, which made the man look at me with a surprised face. I still couldn't see who he was but I was still getting that feeling of familiarity irradiating from him. Our arms trembled from the brutal force we each were pouring into them at that moment, and I knew that if we were made of rock we would have started to crack from it.

"Hey! You know we must not fight!" The man that had been guiding us suddenly shouted. "Pops orders A-" The man then continued saying.

"I don't care! He killed several of us!" The man whom I was fighting with now replied.

"Yes, you know you must not fight L-" Usopp shouted.

"I have to defeat this monster!" I shouted back at my black haired friend.

I almost heard the man in front of me grit his teeth when I called him a 'monster'. He then moved a bit to punch him, and I moved too in turn to try and avoid the hit, but as I avoided this new hit I received the one that I had been blocking before, which made me go back a little, and to cough up some blood. The impact had been exactly where the remains of the wound that had been caused by Blackbeard were, and thus had made me cough some blood up. As soon as this happened I felt some stares on me, as the vampires in the room started to notice that my blood didn't smell like that of a human, but instead like the one of a vampire.

"Now, this is interesting. You say you yourself to fight 'monsters', yet you yourself are one of us" The man that I had been fighting me said. From a distance I managed to see Sanji smiling with a knowing smile.

"What I am or not am is none of your business" I said to the man, as I ran towards him again and attacked him with a lot of strength again. He easily blocked my attack, and then continued talking.

"But you are one of us, yet fight against us. You're despicable" He said then.

"My reasons for fighting are none of your concern!" I shouted at the man, as I ignored Zoro, who was telling me to stop fighting already and follow the orders that Shanks had given us before. I tried to punch the man with my other hand, but as soon as it was blocked by the man I turned around a little and kicked him very quickly and with a lot of speed, that caused the man to be sent flying away into another wall again. I chuckled at this, happy that I had managed to hit him again. I went towards the man, with a grin. Preparing myself for when he would surely get back up and start attacking me again. As I did this I noticed that there were now several broken bits of the wall that had fallen onto the floor with all of the fighting.

The man got up when I was close enough, and soon enough we were fighting each other again at an incredible speed, crashing against the floor, wall and other places of the ground several times and ignoring completely what the other people in the room shouted at us while they tried to convince us to stop fighting each other and listen to reason. I didn't understand it. This vampire had killed several of our comrades, yet they were willing to forget that and let it easily go? I could tell that the man thought something very similar to what I myself was thinking, and that he too was not eager to let that go too. I could almost feel the anger that the vampire irradiated, and I was sure that I was doing the same thing too as I continued fighting him.

It wasn't too long until the man got hold of the weapon that I knew he had on hi since the start of the fight. It was a short and slightly curved dagger, with several decorations and that was with no doubt made of silver. He ran towards me and tried to cut me with the dagger, but I managed to avoid all the blows he directed towards me easily. From a corner of the room I could see Zoro starting to walk towards me, with the obvious intention of breaking the fight.

Soon, he was stopped by the vampire that had been told to guide us. "Don't" He said.

"Why shouldn't I?" Zoro asked, as he looked at me continue avoiding the attacks of the vampire that was attacking me with the dagger.

"It would be useless to stop the two of the m from fighting. They are already quite tired and yet they continue attacking each other. I know at least the one on our side iwll continue attacking even if you are in the middle of the one with the straw hat" I heard the vampire say.

Zoro sighed. "I expect the same thing on my side too" He then said, as he stopped trying to walk towards us and resigned himself to just watch the fight. He clearly wasn't comfortable with this, but he had resigned himself to what he had known from a start. He knew as well as me that I would not stop fighting the other, no matter what.

I couldn't help but to chuckle a bit, as I continued avoiding all the blows that the vampire gave me as he tried to hit me with that dagger that he had. I could almost feel the unknown man's stare on me as I did this, full with curiosity and anger.

"What is so funny?" He asked aloud.

"I ignored his question and just said the comment that I had thought of earlier. "This is surprisingly easy" I said then, as I started attacking the man with my bare hands, managing t hit him several times at first, but soon having to start avoiding the hits of the other man due to the dagger that he had on his hands, and that put me at qutie a risk of getting hit.

"You are not going to manage to hit me if I have this dagger" He then said, as he started attacking again. "You will not manage to beat me" He then muttered.

I grinned at this, excited by the battle that I was having right now and by the fact that we were quite equal. I liked these sort of battles, it had been a very long time since I had last fought with someone so equal to me. "It will end soon enough" I said then, as I reached one of my weapons. I didn't like fighting with them, but there was no other solution right now. If I didn't use them he would end up getting me, and that would be very problematic. Soon I was grabbing my dagger and ready to attack. The man stopped for a moment, and looked at me, almost laughing.

"You won't beat me" He then repeated again, as he stared at the weapon. It was a very special dagger, since it was quite a good weapon and it had been coated many times with vampire blood, and this wasn't liked by other vampires.

I laughed at his comment and charged towards him, blocking his attack and then punching him with my other hand. As the fight soon started becoming quicker and quicker more and more broken bits of what had been the walls and other parts of the room started occupying most of the ground, forcing us to become increasingly careful with where we stepped on so that we didn't fall onto the floor.

Several minutes after attacking and defending we both suddenly charged towards each other, and only realised too late that we wouldn't be able to avoid the weapon of the other. We were barely half a metre from each other when it happened. Instead of hitting me the other man tripped on a rock that was on the ground, while I almost tripped on one, but lost ,my balance. The other man then fell on me, and he pushed me towards the ground to try and remain on his feet. This of course just made me grab onto the thing that was closest to me and regain too my balance, that turned out to be him. Barely seconds after trying to attack each other we both were on the ground with our eyes closed to avoid any damage being done to our eyes surrounded by a thick cloud of dust. I knew that my dagger was now metres away from my hand, and I swore that I had heard his dagger clattering when it fell too onto the ground.

"Luffy!" I heard Nami shout as I fell onto the floor. A similar shout was done by one of the vampires in the room, but I didn't manage to recognise what he had said.

I could barley move, since he was a heavy weight. It was then, barley half a second after falling that I realised that my hood wasn't covering my dace anymore, nor was my straw hat. I tried to move my arms and reach the hood or the hat, so that my face wasn't revealed. I didn't want it t be revealed, it would just cause problems. I opened my eyes to try and locate my hat I realised that the man's hat wasn't either on his head covering it, and instead had fallen somewhere on the floor. I blinked several times, tried to see through all of the dust, and recognise the man's face, that was similar, as he opened his eyes. It was seconds later that I could see the man's face, and recognise who it was. In front of me there was the face that had accompanied me throughout all of my childhood. The face of my 'brother' Ace.

My eyes widened with realisation, as the man's eyes did the same as he too recognised who I was.

"Ace!" I shouted, not managing to contain my surprise. I could feel the eyes of the other people in the room on us, wondering with an amused face what exactly was happening.

"Luffy!" The man on top of me, Ace, said, with a voice equally surprised voice. "I thought you were..." He started saying.

"Dead" I completed.

We remained like that, staring at each other, until we decided to get up and sit on the ground, when we realised the position we were in. Ace quickly moved to one side and sat on the floor, not bothering to get his dagger or hat. I did the same thing as soon as I could move again, and took a deep breath as I did this. I stared at the brother that I thought to be long lost, not knowing what exactly to say, and I recognised on him the same expression that was on me. I also noticed then the medallion that was broken in half that he had and was hanging from his neck, and then felt the weight of the other half that I had more than ever.

He suddenly got up, got his hat and dagger, the reached for mine and once he had gotten all of this he helped me to get on my feet, and once I was standing on my feet, still not knowing what to say, he grabbed my hand and lead me out of the room, while muttering a "I will show you your room".

As we left the room I could hear one of the vampires muttering "What the hell was that".

Zoro soon answered. "I don't have a single idea".

Ace lead me through several corridors that were nearly completely dark, while still grabbing my dagger and hat. He wasn't saying a thing, but neither did I. I didn't know what to say at all. I didn't even know what to think or how to act. The only thing that I knew was that my long dead heart was beating again quite strongly, and that there was a light heat rushing to my cheeks.

It was minutes after walking in that uncomfortable total silence that Ace finally reached a room, that seemed to not have been entered since hundreds of years, opened the door and pushed me inside. Once we were both inside he quickly closed t he door, and dropped the objects that he was holding, that fell onto the floor making a sound that was quite loud, and then went towards me and hugged me.

"I missed you so much, Lu. What happened to you?" He then asked "I thought you had been killed all those years ago" He then finished saying.

I could feel my eyes become slightly teary and my heart beating even faster, getting close to how it had been when I was a human. "I was found by Shanks that night, but he told me that he didn't find you or your body around the place that time. How come that you are alive? That vampire didn't-" I started saying.

"I was found by Marco that day" Ace started saying. "And even though I wasn't given any blood from that vampire I became one because I-" He started saying, but stopped to take a deep and long breath "because I was the son of a vampire and a human, so I already had that vampire blood in me" He then completed. "The son of the King of the Vampires, that is" He then completed.

I was shocked by this, and didn't know what to say. I had never known this. I remained silent, and Ace soon asked another question.

"So the man got you in the end?" He asked.

"Yes he turned me into a vampire, to 'get revenge' on him" I quickly answered, not really knowing what to say.

"I'm just glad that you're alive" Ace then said, as he hugged me tighter.

I smiled at this, and returned this gesture, still feeling the strange beat of my dead heart, that I hadn't felt in 810 years. "I am too" I quickly replied, as I closed my eyes with relief.

"I'm sorry to have attacked you then" Ace suddenly added.

"It's okay. Nothing happened, and the results weren't that bad" I soon replied my older brother, comforting him.

We remained then decided to sit down on the two beds that were inside the room, both covered with old dust, and then started talking to each other casually until we both fell asleep from pure exhaustion.

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Ace's POV:

I woke up to the sound of a very loud noise, similar to a scream, that was followed by someone yelling my name. I lazily opened my eyes, and saw my younger brother shaking me desperately. At first I remained still, as I slowly caught up with the events of last night, which made me grin. But this grin soon vanished when I heard my little brother talk.

"Ace, there are sound of fighting outside" He said, with a nervous voice.


	17. Chapter 17

Here is chapter 17 I hope you enjoy it! I enjoyed writing it. I really did. Well, thanks for all the reviews, favs and alerts. I'm glad that you all liked this story. Well, I'll say toot hat I hope you don't kill me... anyways, you'll see how much more interesting things are to come after this. Oh yes. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Shank's POV:

As soon as Whitebeard said that he wanted to talk some more time to me I knew exactly what he wanted to tell me. we both knew after all. We knew that there was a deeper and stranger meaning in all of this and that he wanted to discuss all of what we had found lately and hadn't shared tough with other members of the organisation, but those closest to us and that wouldn't betray us. We had had everything planned. Everything, and we were sure of what was to come right now and who to handle it to. The man who knew everything would take this matter into his own hands now, and we knew that he would.

"Is the dark king ready?" I heard Whitebeard ask.

I nodded. "Yes, he is aware of what will happen now and is ready to take the correct steps to make everything proceed as it should" I said to the gigantic man. I then turned around, and signalled Roo to let me talk to Whitebeard alone. From the corner of my eye I saw Whitebeard telling the same thing to his first commander.

"That is good. We both know what will happen now. We will surely be attacked by them" Whitebeard said. "Does Rayleigh have the scriptures?" He then asked.

I nodded again. "I handed them over to him as soon as I go them. I guess you did the same?" I told then the strongest man in the world, as we both stared into the other's souls. We had been rivals for such a long time, and we both knew each other quite well. We had known each other for centuries after all.

"I did" Whitebeard then said. "Will he tell them the prophecy in that moment?" He then asked.

"That is for him to decide. He has been waiting for hundreds of years for the right moment to come, and he will continue waiting for a longer time still if it is needed" I said.

"Time for us is running short, since _he_ knows the truth as well. He will make his move when he is ready" The taller man answered

"It is a risk we must take, since this game is no longer in our hands. We must trust the prophecy now, and the man who knows it all" I said.

"The dark king better know what he is doing" Whitebeard then answered. "I just regret having to hide this from both brothers for this time" He then added.

"We just new very few weeks ago, and we didn't have another chance. Their meeting was essential, and so was keeping this a secret from the government until now" I then added again.

"The will know everything now though. _He_ will know everything now" Whitebeard added.

"Yes, but we both knew that already" I said then. "The dark king will be the one to continue from now in. Let's just hope that this matches what he waited for. All the pieces are on their places. Let's just hope that we haven't made any mistakes" I then finished saying.

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Luffy's POV:

I fell asleep before Ace did, completely exhausted. I soon fell into a dreamless sleep, that was interrupted by the loud sound of shots, metal clashing against metal and shouts. I lazily opened my eyes, at first now realising completely what was happening and not processing what the meaning of hearing all of these sounds meant. I coughed due to the high level of dust on the bed and in the air of the room. Minutes passed, and it was when I heard a particular loud shout that I finally realised what was happening.

"The government has raided the hideout!" I thought, as I literally jumped out of the bed and rushed to the door, stopping when I suddenly remembered that my thought long-lost brother was sleeping in the other bed inside the room. I walked towards him, and stared at him for a good deal of time, blushing slightly at how peaceful he look while he slept. He truly hadn't changed a single bit.

I shook my head, casting those thoughts away, and shaking him to make sure he woke up. If he hadn't changed since those times saying his name lightly would definitely not wake him up. "Ace!" I said, saying his name in a particularly loud tone of voice as I tried to wake him up.

It was after several times of repeating this whole process that he finally started to open his eyes, while the whole room was flooded by the sounds of fighting. He lazily opened his eyes, and at first didn't move a single bit as I suppose that he remembered everything that had happened. He grinned, but soon this grin vanished as he heard me talk.

"Ace, there are sound of fighting outside" I said, with a nervous voice, as I stopped shaking him and stared into his eyes. He seemed to this for several seconds, until it all sunk in.

He jumped too out of the bed, and rushed towards the door. He stopped when he suddenly remembered that he didn't have his weapons on him, and turned around quickly to get his bag, his trademark hat and his silver dagger. "Luffy, get your things! We must see what is happening here!" He said with a loud tone of voice, as he went towards the door again.

I turned around and quickly got hold of my cloak, that I had taken off to sleep, put it on, and then grabbed my straw hat and my gun and dagger. As I went towards the door I pulled the hood over my head and placed the hat on top of it, soon regaining my known appearance as a hunter. Ace opened then the door, not being able to contain a small grin that appeared on his face as he stared at my appearance. He was looking at my barely recognisable face, and staring at my silver eyes that could be dimly seen. We then rushed out of the room, with the weapons being held tightly on our hands and us ready to fight at any moment. We turned around several times and went through various corridors. I could tell from what I remembered of walking towards that room from last night that Ace was going towards that room inside which the meeting had taken place yesterday. However, a long way before we had reached that hall we saw several government agents fighting in a big group against the vampire who seemed to be Marco. Ace ran towards him, and so did I.

"Marco, what is happening?" My older brother asked as he started fighting against several gruards, soon defeating them.

"The hiding place was raided by several humans of the government and by vampires of other groups" Marco soon explained.

I was surprised by this, and so was Ace. Only loyal people of our groups had been allowed to come to this meeting. There should be no spies here, so how had they found out? "Are there more of them?" I then asked the vampire.

Marco turned around to look at me. "There are a lot of them inside, but I don't know exactly how many of them or where exactly. I guess that they are in the meeting room though" He then answered, as he delivered the last blow to the last guard that was standing on his feet. He then turned around to look at me. "So you're that 'Straw Hat' hunter, right?" He then said.

I nodded, and looked back at him, not knowing well what to say.

Marco then chuckled. "I knew there was something strange about you, from what I had heard. I knew that you had to be a vampire!" He said, with a proud tone of voice "And one with strange customs at that" He then added.

I looked at him directly with my silver eyes, that weren't very well covered by the hood or the hat. "I don't care about that" I said, as I turned around and continued going through the corridors, towards where more sounds of fighting were being heard. I heard Marco chuckling behind me, who knows why, and Ace running right behind me too.

Soon I came across Zoro and who seemed to be Sanji, who had teamed up and were fighting another big group of guards. I went towards them, with the intention f helping them fight.

"Luffy!" Zoro said when he saw me arrive. "They have attacked us, they are coming in enormous numbers!" He shouted as he fought at an incredible speed with his three swords.

"I know" I said, which really was a strange thing for me to say, as I kicked a guard that had started going towards me, causing him to be launched towards a nearby wall. "How did they find us?" I then asked my friend, after quite a number of seconds fighting. More guards had appeared in this area, and were mostly coming at me and Ace.

"Apparently they followed us to this place, a nd then just waited to enter!" Sanji then answered.

I nodded, and fought against the enemy humans and vampires at an incredible speed with my dagger and my gun, using both to block attacks and attack. Ace and Marco had also started fighting, however even though we were fighting at our full speed more and more guards kept rushing in. How many of them were there?

"Luffy! We both will take care of this! you go to the meeting room!" Zoro suddenly shouted. "I think there are there several important people from the government" Zoro then said, as he pushed me towards the corridor that led to the main hall.

I then started walking towards that room beside Ace, feeling Zoro transform behind me. Suddenly Marco decided to run ahead of us.

"Where are you going?" Ace then asked, as Marco started to run ahead

"I want to see pops and what is happening there!" He shouted "Please cover me while I go!" He then finished saying, as he continued going forwards.

Both Ace and I nodded, and we then followed Marco, that guards tried to start attacking as he went forwards, but were stopped by Ace and I, which clearly wasn't liked by the guards.

"I don't think so" Ace said with a grin, as he stopped a group of guards from going forwards by quickly attacking them. Soon enough we were surrounded by a group of guards, that were constantly trying to attack us. Both Ace and I were now in the middle of a circle that was quite big, metres away from the hall where we had fought at accidentally hours ago. I felt quite in a good physical form, but I felt thirsty, and that burn in my throat that I had felt so many times throughout the years was there again. Ace and I were standing back against back, attacking in all ways possible the guards with such an expertise and coordination that it seemed that we were an unbeatable pair. We were fighting against the guards around us at quite an admirable speed, turning around and using each other's bodies as support as we did this. Soon enough we had managed to defeat quite a number of the guards that had been surrounding us, and we could once again continue going forwards, being attacking here and there by random guards, that we soon managed to defeat.

The main hall where we had fought at hours ago was full of guards and bodies of unconscious and dead ones, and they were fighting the other hunters and vampires there were. We then made slowly our way towards the room where the meeting was held, that was surprisingly from where the great majority of sounds of fighting were coming from. It was a very long time after we had first woken up that we managed to enter that room, since we had to go there defeating every single guard that stood in our way. I could see from a distance the other hunters and vampires fighting against them with all their strength against the guards remaining in the room and the ones that slowly entered it too. The burning sensation in my neck was getting worse by now, and I could feel my pupils getting wider and turning my whole eye black and then returning to their normal size as I tried to control myself and the thirst that controlled me. I knew that my brother had noticed this too, but I didn't have a clue of what he had thought of this. I knew that Zoro had seen this too, and that the only thing that was stopping him from forcing me too drink the red essential food that kept me alive was the fact that we were surrounded by guards. I could tell that Marco was fighting guards here too, and was surrounded by a number too big to count by bare eyesight.

"Let's enter" Ace then said, as he started to push the enormous door that led to the meeting room. I nodded and I did the same, and we entered quickly, before any guards could follow us inside.

What we saw shocked us. Inside the meeting room there were the so called three strongest men of the government. The three so called 'Admirals' of the government. Aokiji, Kizaru and Akainu, alongside with a black haired man that was all too familiar to me. The four of them were fighting Shanks and Whitebeard, that had tagged alongside each other for this fight and had been apparently fighting the other four men, that had given them quite serious wounds, but had also received the same kinds of wounds by the two men. They all turned around to look at us, with no surprise whatsoever on their faces. Had they been expecting this?

"Pops!" Ace shouted as soon as he saw the leader of the Whitebeard Pirates, wounded and fighting the four men.

"Don't come near us, Ace" Whitebeard then said, as soon as he saw his son getting closer to him, with the obvious intention of defending him and fighting alongside him. I made a similar move towards Shanks, who was what could be considered as my hero, and was stopped when I heard his words.

"You aren't required in this fight, your roles are elsewhere" Shanks then said, as he looked at me. The six of them had stopped fighting for a moment, and they all were staring at us.

"Handing them over to us would make things easier" Kizaru then said, as soon as he had heard the words of the two men.

"You will be defeated, like you were years ago" Shanks then replied.

"What I remember about that time is killing your hopes to win" Akainu answered the red haired man.

"What we all remember about time is you not winning" Whitebeard then replied, with a smirk on his face, before they all resumed their fighting, that took place at a speed so high that was almost hard to follow.

I could see Ace staring with horror at Whitebeard and at all the wounds that the man that he admired so much was receiving and causing the other four men. I stared at Shanks with a similar expression, and then looked at the man that I despised more than anything in the world for several moments. I could feel him briefly staring at me, something that I soon copied. We spent several minutes like this, just standing there not knowing what to do until we saw an attack coming towards us, more specifically from Aokiji. Soon Ace was right in front of me, prepared to defend me, but in the end this wasn't done, as soon Shanks was in front of us two, defending us.

"Your battle is with me" He said, with a dead serious tone of voice.

"It is them that we want" Aokiji soon replied, with a confident tone of voice.

"You have no business with my son and his brother. Your business is with us" Whitebeard then replied, as he blocked the attack of the other two admirals. Soon they started fighting again, and the three men tried to get to us, but were rendered ineffective by Shanks and Whitebeard.

It was several minutes after this that Blackbeard joined the fight, and soon the fight started regaining the speed that it had had before. However, this didn't last as long, as soon the four men's attacks were blocked by the two that we knew so well.

"Luffy, Ace. Get away from here now" Shanks said, as his hands visibly trembled from the enormous amount of force that was being placed in them at that moment.

"We won't leave you alone!" Ace then shouted, visibly worried about Whitebeard. "We won't abandon you!" He then continued saying.

Whitebeard then turned around to look at him. "We will be okay. You must go away from here now. You are important, and you must get away from here" He then said.

"We can't leave you here!" I then shouted, not liking the idea of leaving my hero here.

"We will be okay, and you know you must trust us Luffy. Just go away, you will see us soon!" Shanks then shouted.

I nodded, with some tears forming in my eyes and turned around. I pulled at Ace's arm, knowing how hard this would be for him, but in the end he decided to follow his leader's order and get away from the room.

We ran out of the room, and through the long corridors that had taken us about a day ago to this place at first. We soon were at that street again, and we still heard the sounds of swords clashing. I worried for a second for all my friends, but I had no doubt that they would be okay. We both then continued running through the streets, and in no time we were out of the small town we had been at for less than 24 hours.

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Shank's POV:

I looked at the vampire boy that I had known for such a long time leave alongside his brother, something that wouldn't have happened if Whitebeard or I hadn't ordered them to do so. I grinned at this, and I could tell that Whitebeard was grinning too.

"Everything will be okay now" I said, seeing Whitebeard nodding at this.

Blackbeard and the other three men chuckled at this. "You know very well how this will end for both of you" He said, with a cruel smirk, before our fight continued.


	18. Chapter 18

Here is chapter 18! I really enjoyed writing this chapter, so I hope that you enjoy it too! I would like to thanks everyone that has added this story to your favs, alerts and/or reviewed! It really makes me happy! Well, onwards with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Zoro's POV:

I couldn't help but stare as Luffy fought against the other man, just like all the other people in the room did. I hadn't been surprised by the fact that Luffy had ended up fighting the vampire. It was to be expected after all, seeing how Luffy was and how the vampire had behaved and how similar he seemed to be to Luffy with reactions. I had been surprised though by Luffy being through backwards into a wall, since my dark haired friend had always been terrifying strong, even though he was a vampire. I looked with interest at them, at first thinking of getting involved and to stop them, but then realising that even if I said something about not fighting it wouldn't stop him from fighting that vampire. He was Luffy after all, and if I had learnt something about him after being such a long time with him that was that it was useless to try to change his mind once it was set on doing something.

I saw him getting up then and going again towards the vampire whose face couldn't be seen. Once he was on his feet Luffy then dashed towards the vampire, and quickly punched him with great force, taking the other completely off guard and causing him to crash against a wall again. As their battle continued I watched them, half interested on the ongoing fight and on how it would end. Luffy usually was never beaten badly, but the vampire seemed to be quite of his level, and that was what made me be interested in the fight. Luffy was a great fighter, and it was quite rare to see him on par with someone. Soon enough the man that had been guiding us to our rooms tried to stop the other man from fighting, but failed miserably. I was surprised when the vampire that Luffy was fighting against gave a reply that was similar to one that would be expected from Luffy. Usopp then decided to take this chance to try and convince Luffy to stop fighting, even if he knew as well as me that it would be useless, and this had the result that was expected from trying something like this on Luffy, that was complete and absolute failure. Not only did Luffy immediately say that he would continue fighting but he also didn't stop for a single second to rethink his answer in any visible way.

I chuckled at this. I had ended up liking quite a lot that part of my friend, how he would never let anything change a decision of his. This had had good consequences several times, but most of the time it would make me or whoever was with him on a mission to have to go through quite big problems. I looked then at Usopp, who sat down with a defeated expression, and I couldn't help but laugh lightly at him. This however didn't last long, as I soon turned around again to look at the fight evolve. Of course it wasn't long before the vampire then managed to score a punch on Luffy again, but this time there was something different about it, and I immediately knew what it was. He had punched Luffy right on the place where the last parts of the wound caused by Blackbeard where, and even if it was almost healed I saw Luffy coughing up some blood. It was then when the smell of his blood flooded the room. Of course, it wasn't something that humans could detect, but for the other vampires that filled the room it was a very easy task to detect from what creature what blood belonged too, and soon the eyes of the vampires in the room were wide with realisation, surprised that Luffy was a vampire, as the smell of his blood had indicated. I heard them talking to each other, but I wasn't able to hear well what they were talking about. Whatever it was it surely wasn't good, seeing the tone of voice that they were both using. It was then that I started getting a bad feeling about all of this. This fight would surely end up badly, they had bruised each other quite a lot already and things were bound to get worse. And since it was known that Luffy was a vampire now...

"I have to stop him" I thought, just before I started screaming at Luffy to stop. Some of the other vampires in the room did the same thing, but they didn't listen to us, and they wouldn't do it.

I could only continue looking at them as the fight continued, and they crashed against the wall, floor and even roof of the room, and other places too. The fight was taking place ant an increasing speed, and it was impressive to watch them fight. It continued going on and on, and the vampire ended up getting his weapons to fight against Luffy, which only made the fight more vicious.

"This will end up badly if they continue like this" I then though, as I got on my feet and started walking towards them, with the intention of stopping the fight. However, I was stopped by the man that had been guiding us earlier.

"Don't" The man said, as he stopped me from advancing more

"Why shouldn't I?" I asked then, as I glared at the man for a moment and then at the vicious fight that was taking place.

"It would be useless to stop the two of the m from fighting. They are already quite tired and yet they continue attacking each other. I know at least the one on our side will continue attacking even if you are in the middle of the one with the straw hat" The man than said

I sighed. "I expect the same thing on my side too" I then said, as I resigned from trying anything at all and continued watching the fight, quite uncomfortable.

They continued going on like this, and after not succeeding in attacking the man without a weapon Luffy ended up getting hold of his silver dagger, so that he was able to attack the other evenly. The fight then turned into an even more vicious and quick one, but soon this started dying as the floor became increasingly covered by broken bits of the walls and other places where they had both crashed against. I could tell that both were being careful to not step or trip on one of them, and they were doing quite a good job at it, which was quite surprising. However, this didn't last forever, and in less than a blink of an eye they had both fallen onto the floor, one on top of another. During this process Luffy's hat an hood had stopped covering his face, and the hat of the other man had also stopped covering his face, and instead was lying on the floor, as were both of their daggers. I heard Nami shout Luffy's name, and then the man who seemed to be Marco shouting the vampire's name too. I looked at him and saw that both him and Lucky Roo had gone out of the room where Shanks and Whitebeard still where in.

What happened then amazed me. Luffy tried to find his hat and hood and put them on again, but as soon as he looked at the man's face his eyes widened with realisation. As if he had already known him before, or as if he was a very important person to him.

"Ace!" I heard Luffy shout, which was followed by the man shouting the name of my best friend. Then they said a couple of things to each other in a tone of voice that wasn't high enough to make me understand what they were saying. They then stared at each other for a while, until that 'Ace' got up, grabbed Luffy's hand and led him out of the room, not forgetting to get all of their objects as he did that.

"What the hell was that?" One of the vampires in the room asked then.

"I don't have a single idea" I then replied, as I decided to sit down and think about what had just happened.

Once I sat down I started to think why there had been that strange reaction in the two of them, it had been such a vicious fight after all. As I continued thinking I didn't notice anyone leaving the room, since I was in such a deep thought about what had happened. I eventually managed to reach a reasonable conclusion before I fell asleep, and it was that Luffy had just encountered the person that he had told me about several times. Luffy had told me quite a number of times how he had been turned into a vampire, and he had mentioned several times having to witness his brother being killed by being drained of all blood by that Blackbeard. I nodded unconsciously as I decided that the one that Luffy had been fighting against had been his brother, but he had told me that he had been drained of all blood, so, how he alive? and how was he a vampire? However I didn't get to think about this question as I fell asleep, due to exhaustion.

When I woke up it seemed that quite some time had passed, but I couldn't know what time of the day it was since the room I was in, that was the hall where the fight had taken place and there were no windows. I was nervous, as I knew that soon it would be full moon and I didn't know what time of the day or what day it was. I had woken up due to the sound of footsteps. Very loud footsteps. I yawned loudly, and slowly got up, looking around me as I tried to both wake up completely and find the source of all of the noise. Seconds turned it no minutes, and it wasn't until I heard the sound of swords being drawn that I realised what the footsteps came from. In that moment I withdrew my three swords, prepared to start fighting against the government agents that would sure come pouring into the room very soon.

It turned out that I was right, and soon I found myself surrounded by government guards, fighting as hard as I could. It wasn't too long until a vampire came into the room. I looked at the person that had just entered for a moment, and immediately recognised the man that I had met with Luffy in the tomb of the King of the Vampires. He grinned for a bit as he launched himself at a group of vampires and government agents, throwing them to the floor, and then starting to kick the rest of the people around him with his legs. He soon was turning around quickly, defeating at quite a good speed the enemies around him. I continued then attacking, concentrating again on the enemies around me and on defeating them as soon as possible, happy and less worried now that I wasn't fighting all of them along. Soon enough the room was flooded with them, but it didn't take long for other vampires and for the other hunters to arrive. Soon enough everyone excepting Shanks, Whitebeard, Luffy and that Ace and Marco were inside the enormous hall fighting against the guard, and defeating most of them quickly. I was amazed by how little they managed to keep fighting.

It was some time later that Marco appeared in the hall, with the obvious marks that someone that had been fighting had. He was running towards the door that led to the meeting room, where presumably Whitebeard and Shanks were at, but he was soon surrounded by government agents and vampires, when they immediately recognised who he was and his key importance. Marco seemed to curse as he tried to fight his way to the door, but didn't managed to. It was minutes after the entrance of Marco that Luffy and that Ace entered the room, and quickly started defeating the guards in their way.

Luffy then came towards me, with the intention f helping me. By then I was surrounded by quite a number of guards, and Sanji and I were in the middle of the circle, quickly defeating them. I had somehow ended up at the corridor that lead to the main hall, which I didn't completely understand.

Luffy!" I shouted to my friend. "They have attacked us, they are coming in enormous numbers!" He I then shouted again, as I slashed an enemy across the chest.

Luffy grinned in his usual goofy way before answering. "I know" He replied. I nodded, but couldn't help but think how strange was to hear Luffy say those words. "How did they find us?" He then asked, as he kicked a number of guards, causing them to crash against other ones that were fighting against the man that had once tried to lead us to our rooms. He had defeated quite a number of guards already, but more were now coming towards him and who probably was his brother.

"Apparently they followed us to this place, and then just waited to enter!" Sanji then answered Luffy, who nodded as a sign of understanding what had happened while he continued fighting with his gun and dagger at a very quick speed and doing correctly all the techniques that were considered to be that of the 'hunters'.

After some fighting I got a feeling that told me that Luffy and Ace should go to the meeting room. More and more guards kept rushing in, and if Shanks and Whitebeard hadn't come out of it yet it meant that there was someone important there, and it would be good if Luffy could give some support to them, or at least see if they were both okay. "Luffy! We both will take care of this! you go to the meeting room!" I then shouted. "I think there are there several important people from the government" I then said, as I stopped fighting for a moment and pushed him towards the corridor that led to the main hall. I then transformed into my complete wolf form, to increase my fighting speed and get rid of all of these annoying enemies once and for all. My three swords fell onto the floor as I transformed quickly and while I stood the pain that invaded my body. Soon I had managed to do this, and then I quickly transformed back into my human form, to get my three swords, and then ran to the main hall, soon followed by Sanji.

From the corridor I could see that the room was a mess. I could see Marco surrounded again by more guards, and fighting quickly, as were several other vampires of the Whitebeard Vampires and Lucky Roo, Nami and Usopp. Luffy and Ace didn't seem to be there, so I assumed that they had entered the meeting room. I rushed into the room and started fighting. Not that I had another choice though, and soon time started to pass fairly quicly as we continued fighting against the seemingly never ending raid of government agents and of vampires. I was tired because of the fighting, and the fact that I had been in a bad physical state because of the wounds that Blackbeard had given me didn't help at all, and the closeness of the full moon didn't either. I could feel my physical condition and my strength start to evaporate, and I didn't like this, but I couldn't draw any conclusions because of the closed room.

It then happened suddenly, the meeting room's doors were destroyed when two men were thrown through them, which I recognised to be Blackbeard and Shanks. Soon three admirals and Whitebeard entered the main hall, and then the fighting turned even more frenetic an d vicious, and soon other walls started crumbling, and even several parts of the roof did to, which left the sky to be seen. By that moment I felt horrible, and it was when I looked at the sky when I saw my worst fears confirmed: It was almost dusk, and I could detect the faint figure of what would become the full moon that was about to rise in the sky.

It hit me like a ton of bricks, and soon my physical condition got worse and worse as it slowly became night time, the moon more visible and because of the mere fact that I was going to be directly under the sky, which made the transformations quicker and also more painful. I didn't like this. I didn't like when it was this time of the month, but usually I could endure it thanks to Luffy, who always helped me when this happened and controlled me so that I didn't kill any person during the time I was a mindless beast. However, this time I was surrounded by people, enemies and friends, and there was no one that could possibly help me to control me. I started to feel the paint hat usually came before the transformation, that went through my body sharply and quickly, like it always did. This made me fall on my knees onto the floor, as I grasped my chest with obvious pain. My three swords clattered as they fell on the ground, and I heard Sanji asking me worried if I was okay. I didn't reply, and instead stared with horror at the full moon that now shone brightly in the middle of the sky. How could I have ignored this? How could I forget? What was I going to do now?

My thoughts were then interrupted when I felt the first wave of extreme pain go through me, and the clawing of the monster inside me as it tried to take over my body. I tried to stop it, but I knew that I wouldn't manage to stop it, and that trying this would only make things more painful, but this didn't stop me from trying to stop the transformation that would ruin everything. I heard Sanji ask me again if I was concern, and the stares of several people on me, in between surely were the three admirals, Blackbeard, Shanks, Whitebeard and others. I tried to contain a scream of pain as I felt the first wave of pain, that went through all of my body. Through my heart, chest, legs, arms, stomach, every other part of my body and my very mind. I continued trying to stop the beast inside me from gaining control, suffering its consequences. Then the second wave of pain came, which did made me scream with pain, that soon would turn into pure agony. I clenched my chest tighter, and by now I was completely unaware of the battle and the people that surrounded me, and instead was facing my very own inner battle, that I was destined to lose.

I continued screaming with pain and agony as I felt my body changing. As I felt the heart failure, the stomach failure and many other changes. As I felt my bones changing of position and my whole body turn into that of a half wolf and half human, the form that was taken by every werewolf in the nights of full moon. More and more waves of pain went through my whole body, each causing more and more pain than the last one, and making my rational part of me go away more and more, substituted by the beast that was inside me, that made me lose awareness of my surroundings and feel myself being pushed more and more into that unconsciousness that the rational part of my mind, my human part, always had during full moons, that was what made me unable to control my actions and remember anything at all. I was slowly being taken over by the beast, and I could do nothing to stop that. Then, I stopped screaming, but not because the pain had gone away, but because my very vocal chords, throat and gullet were changing, preventing me from screaming. Then the endorphins flooded my body, relieving some of the pain as the transformation was completed. I looked around me as the transformation was completed, and closed my eyes as I finally lost control of my actions and consciousness, my human part of my brain was put into deep slumber and the bestial part took over.

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I finally regained consciousness after who knows how much time. It was daytime, and I was lying on top of soft grass, under the shade of a tree. I could see that my clothes were torn and that I had several wounds on me. I could also see that my three swords were on the grass beside me. What had happened?


	19. Chapter 19

Okay, here is chapter 19! I will say that t was as hard as hell to write what Rayleigh was going to say, but it is okay now. I will also add that there is more to this than what I've written, and that there are clues and facts left behind in other chapters that can tell more to the complete version I will write more later than sooner, so feel free to try and think about it! ^^ Well, I hope that you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story

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Luffy's POV:

I slowly felt ,myself regaining consciousness quite slowly and starting to realise that I was awake. I felt that I was lying on something, but I didn't know what it was, or couldn't remember. My first thought was that I had fallen asleep on Zoro's swords by accident, like I had done once a long time ago. He hadn't been too happy, and I grimaced at the thought of what would happen to me when Zoro noticed. My second thought was that Zoro always left the swords beside him, far away from my reach and usually against a tree, so it would have been quite strange for me to end up sleeping on top of the three swords. My third and final thought was that Zoro hadn't come out of that hiding place with me, so what the hell was I sleeping on top of? I also then felt a slight weight on my back, so what was that?

I blinked several times, adjusting myself to the light of the day. Thankfully my cloak and my straw hat were on top of my head, protecting me from the sunlight. I then looked around me, to see what exactly what I had slept on, and was extremely surprised when I found out.

"A-a-ace?" I stuttered as my eyes widened, and got slightly up.

I then felt a blush creep up to my face, as the realisation hit me. I had slept on top of Ace, and he had even hugged me during the sleep. How had this happened? Why did I end up like this? I shook my head, casting the thoughts away and trying to do the same thing with the blush that now was painted on my face, like those that were on my face all of those years ago, but not managing to make it disappear. Once I had managed to concentrate a tiny bit I started remembering what had happened before I had fallen asleep. I could remember things vaguely. The fight in that hiding place, Shanks and Whitebeard telling us to go away, us getting away from the place and out of the town, only to find that there were several groups of guards following us and several others trying to find us, the numerous fights and then unconsciousness, at least for me. From what I could see we were lying on top of soft baby green grass surrounded by trees. The place was vaguely familiar, but I couldn't really remember what it was, or when I had been here, for that matter.

It was several moments after I had woken up that I saw Ace's eyes opening up, also covered by his cloak and hat. Once they were open he stared at a random point for brief moments with dead eyes, until he finally woke up completely and then realised two things: One, that his hand was still going around my back in a nearly broken hug, and two, that I was very few centimetres above him, which I could guess that was considered as an invasion to his 'private space'.

"Luffy!" He said with a blush on his face, as he decided to sit on the grass and pushed me backwards so that he could manage this.

I was now sitting on my knees, while Ace was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed and lying slightly backwards as he supported himself with his hands, that were still on the ground. "Ace, what happened after I fell asleep?" I then decided to ask the other black haired male that was sitting in front of me, as I got rid of the blush more or less, something that the other didn't seem to accomplish too well.

"I managed to carry you to a part of the forest, and once I was there I defeated some other soldiers that had also been following us. I then tried to move to a more hidden part of the forest and I guess that I fell asleep due to exhaustion while I tried to do this" He explained.

I nodded, but I didn't say anything else. I didn't know what to say, and Ace didn't either. We stayed like that for quite some time, staring at random points. I thought of what I could say to start taking again with my brother, whom I hadn't seen in far too much time. It was after some time that I heard footsteps behind me. I was staring at the sky, and when that happened I immediately saw Ace tensing up and jumping up from the ground, grabbing his dagger and standing between me and whoever was behind me.

"You won't lay a single finger on Luffy!" He shouted at the figure.

I turned around, and looked at the figure that Ace was going to probably fight. It was covered in dark and thick robes, and I couldn't see his face, but he seemed familiar, just like this place. I closed my eyes and thought for a moment, as I heard the man chuckle a bit, something that set Ace's nerves on edge. It was after some thinking that I realised who the man was. I had spent twenty years with him after all, and had met him several times before too.

"Rayleigh!" I shouted as I realised who the man was, with a huge grin on my face. I got up, and went towards the man, assuring Ace by placing a hand on his shoulder that this man wasn't our enemy. "How come you are here?" I then asked him, with the grin still on my face.

Rayleigh chuckled. "I live here" He then answered with a relaxed tone of voice and another grin on his face.

My head tilted to one side. "That's true" I muttered, as I crossed my hands, and I continued staring at the man that I had gotten to know so well. Ace, on the other hand was still staring at the man, not really knowing what was happening and my relation to him.

"You must be 'Fire Fist Ace'" Rayleigh then said, as he looked at my brother.

Ace stared at him, with a face that told that he knew who Rayleigh was, even if he was all covered up. "And you are the Dark King" He stated. "What is your relations hip with Luffy?" He then asked him.

I quickly answered Ace's question. "He trained me for 20 years, up until not too long ago" I said, with another grin painted on my face.

Ace then looked surprised at me, clearly not having expected this. I could tell that he was about to ask me again something, but he was suddenly interrupted by Rayleigh, who said that government soldiers could soon be at this place and that it wasn't totally safe for us, since we were exhausted and that he also had to tell us several things, something that I had completely forgotten. That was how we ended up going to Rayleigh's small house, arriving there quite quickly.

I could tell that I was too thirsty for my own good, but it wasn't like I was going to try and drink some blood right now. I would stand a bit more, just a bit more. I knew that my eyes right now probably were of a dark silver colour, close to black, or simply black right now, but I didn't care too much about it. I didn't want to drink blood right now, even if the monster inside me asked for it and made me lose a bit of control and feel like my throat burned. I didn't want to have it. Ace seemed to be slightly nervous, but I didn't know why though. He was also thirsty, as I could see by the light black taint that was in his eyes, but he didn't seem too bothered by it. I could guess that he wasn't too bothered with drinking blood, which was something that I didn't like a bit. I wasn't called an "Anorexic vampire" by my friends for anything. I wanted to ask him how he had survived to that night so many years ago, but I decided that I would do that later, when Rayleigh had told us whatever he wanted to tell us now.

When we arrived to Rayleigh's house we immediately ended up sitting on some chairs. It was s very simple house, and you could tell that even though someone lived here that that someone didn't spend too much time inside this place. It seemed to be a very old house too, and it didn't have too many pieces of furniture. There were only several basic things, that was several chairs, a bookshelf and a single bed could be seen in another room. There was a very simple table, that was covered with all kinds of papers with all kinds of articles and photographs on them, related to much more many things t hat I would ever know.

Rayleigh then looked at us for several, before asking the star question. "What happened there?" He asked

"You knew about the meeting?" Ace said, amused.

Rayleigh smiled mysteriously."I have contact with Shanks still" He said easily, not saying anything else. Ace seemed to be surprised by this. The 'Dark King' had famously the person closest to the 'Vampire King', an d after his execution he hadn't been involved with anything at all, but there was quite a lot that was said about him though. His inactivity was usually taken to mean that he wasn't involved with any of the groups, but apparently this was not the case. I knew well that he and Shanks had a good relationship, but I knew that the man knew more than he seemed to. Ace was probably wondering why Rayleigh would have better relations with the hunters than with the vampire groups, but that was something else.

I decided to answer the man that had trained me for such a long time. "The government along with several of the old vampire groups attacked us" I said "The three admirals were there, and Blackbeard too" I briefly explained

Rayleigh didn't seem too surprised by this, and nodded. "So they followed you there?" He asked.

Ace nodded to this. "That was probably what happened, but it was still strange" He said, with a tone of voice that indicated that he still wasn't too relaxed around Rayleigh.

I then looked at both of them, not really knowing what to say. It was some moments after that I decided to ask the man I considered my friend a question that had been bothering me for quite long. "Shanks and Whitebeard told us to go away and not to fight. Why was that?" I then asked the man. I had a feeling that they had been discussing something, and that the three of them had talked to each other more than what they had told us. I felt that there was something else, even if it was a bit strange fo rme to get these kind of feelings.

"I'm surprised Luffy. Yes, we have been talking a bit about all of this. They asked me to explain you something" Rayleigh said with a laugh, as he went towards the table to search for a particular piece of paper. He then returned with a long sheet of paper that seemed quite old and a parchment that was very familiar to me. He then sat back down on his chair, and looked at both of us and immediately started talking. "We all knew that as soon as they officially met each other they would be attacked by the government and its possible allies" He started saying. Ace was very surprised by this, and so was I.

"They knew that they would be attacked?" Ace muttered.

Rayleigh nodded. "There was a strange thing going o n with the government and other vampire groups, more specifically Blackbeard, for some time. It was obvious that if they met to discuss an alliance they would soon be attacked, an alliance was the last thing that the government wanted. That Blackbeard wanted. The meeting was to be designed to discuss the information that you recovered in between other things, but it was because of this that it was not discussed there, and instead they gave the information to me" He said.

"Why did they give it to you?" Ace asked then.

"I am the only man that you would have ended up meeting that knows what is going on, excepting Blackbeard, that I guess that you don't want to particularly meet for these things." He said. Ace could only nod at this, and I did the same. It seemed reasonable.

"What information do you have to tell us then" Ace then asked.

Rayleigh then laughed again at how Ace wasn't wasting a single second in questioning what we both had to be told. "It is concerning the scriptures that were recovered from the tomb of the King of the Vampires and... a prophecy that was discovered 834 years ago, by the King of the Vampires and the Revolutionary Hunter when they were alive" Rayleigh said.

"But Shanks never said anything about a prophecy being discovered" I immediately said, quite surprised by this. Shanks had told me, or so I thought, every single thing that had been discovered.

"It is only known by a few people that remain from that era. It is very few right now, since most of them have been killed or have died now. It wasn't mentioned to either of you because it was too dangerous to tell it to you then, before more data was known. Now that everything is sure it is the time to tell it to you" Rayleigh said. Ace and I were staring at him, deeply interested and curious about whatever it was that he was going to tell us. Rayleigh stopped to breathe in and out some times and then resumed talking. "It will be easier if I start from the start" He then said, as he thought of how to start talking. "It all starts centuries ago, in what is often called the 'Void Century'" He then started saying. "Then something happened that caused the people from then to discover and create a way to another dimension, often referred to in ancient texts as the 'Space of God'" He said. "They sent some people there to discover what it hid, although they were in the same time the creators of it and also the discoverers of it. They had recreated it by entering it, but it had been always been there" Rayleigh then added, causing me to nod as I slowly processed the information. "A group of humans entered this place, and they discovered that there were several spirits inhabiting that place, and that all of them were of a different race" Rayleigh said. "The spirits, seeing the humans enter immediately recognised them as being gifted, as all the people that had tried to enter the place previously in the past centuries had immediately died. They, recognising their importance, decided to go with them back to their world, in the same body and as one. However, this other race wasn't the only thing that they discovered there" Rayleigh then said. "The humans discovered that there was a powerful object, that would give all the wishes one person wanted at a price, that was to remain in that world. This object was protected by one of these spirits. One of the humans that entered, wishing for that power, killed this spirit, and tried to take the stone, but he didn't manage to in the end, and was stopped by two of the humans that had entered this realm, the person that had lost the spirit that was to be with him, and the best friend of this one. When he was defeated they all decided to return to this world, and to prevent that human or any other from getting that object they decided to seal the entrance to this place and in this way to ensure that only the chosen ones would manage to return to that world and have the possibility to get the object" Rayleigh said., "To guide them they left a prophecy behind to say how to do this". Rayleigh then added again.

"What is the way?" Ace then asked.

"I will explain that in a moment" Rayleigh then said. "The humans, when they came back to this world realised that by accepting coming back with the spirits they had changed, and this change is what we consider to be all of the races that inhabit this world right now: The vampires, werewolves... All but the one that had lost his companion had changed, and it was only this one that remained human" Rayleigh then said. "The prophecy says as following:

_'When the two halves meet each other then stars will die, and when night and day are reunited the path to the 'Land of God' will open to the chosen ones. The last plan will then start, changing everything'_

and it is this that dictates how to enter that world. There then have been numerous studies that were done to determine what it meant, but it is only the ones done by the 'King of the Vampires' and the 'Revolutionary Hunter' that managed to throw some light into this whole thing" Rayleigh then said. "Both of these men managed to uncover the way in which to enter this other place, but never managed to do it. There are many other people that also want and wanted to enter it, for example Blackbeard. Most of them want to get their hands of the powerful weapon in that space." Rayleigh then said.

I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing. So that had been how the races started! and that was what Blackbeard wanted! "And what is the way to enter?" I then asked, knowing that what I had recovered with Zoro and Sanji was what the King of the Vampires had said about that.

"We only know what the King of the Vampires said, since we couldn't know what the 'Revolutionary Hunter' said, and it is known that both texts act like compliments to each other" Rayleigh then said. "The part of the King of the Vampires says the following:

_Through many studies it has finally been revealed the first steps to be taken to enter the so called 'Land of God'. The original prophecy mentions that 'day' and 'night' will have to be reunited, however it is impossible that this refers to a physical event, and it has recently been revealed that it does not say that to enter this land day and night as we know them will have to be reunited, but to two cups that have been said to be brought by these first humans that entered this realm. The cups of 'day' and night', that have been previously been referred to by some as 'diei et noctis aeternae', that involve with no doubt the two halves mentioned. One of these halves will have to be 'day', while the other will have to be 'night'. It is with these two cups, said to be in two opposite places, as their very own name indicates, that will allow the path to this land to be opened, and that will allow the stone to be accessed by a 'chosen one'. It is now of great importance that this importance does not fall into the hands of he who desires it for the' last plan'._

This is what the King of the Vampires uncovered about this place" Rayleigh then finished explaining.

I was at awe. I didn't know what to say. I turned around slightly and looked at Ace, who also had a similar look on his face. Rayleigh was limiting himself to watch our reactions to this.

"So if we don't get these before Blackbeard does he will carry out his plans with that stone" I then muttered.

"And what we must do then is recover both cups" Ace then finished saying.

Rayleigh grinned. "Yes" he said.

"Let's go then to recover the cups!" I then shouted, with a goofy grin on my face and as I jumped out of my chair. I was determined to stop Blackbeard and to protect this world from him. I was determine to set everything back to how it should be, and there was something attracting about the stone. With it I would manage to set things to how they should be, and I was determined to change several things that would make everything perfect, and that would erase all errors that had happened and that had ruined my life. Yes, I would manage everything of this, and make everything perfect. I would, and I knew it.

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Zoro's POV:

I blinked several times more, and soon got up to get hold of my swords. My clothes were worn out and broken, and I could see that I was drenched with dried blood now too. I could feel my body being sore from the painful transformation, and I felt slightly weak and dizzy, like I always did after a transformation. I managed to grab the three swords and soon they were in the palce that I always carried them in. I then looked around me, trying to discover what had happened. I walked around for a bit, but as soon as I was going to get too far away heard someone talking to me from behind.

"Are you sure that going away is the most intelligent to do now?" I heard the person say behind me.

I turned around, and I immediately recognised two blonde men behind me, one grinning and the other one with a serious face and with a familiar tattoo on his chest.


	20. Chapter 20

Here is chapter 20! I'm so surprised that I've managed to get here, it seems like toof ew chapters for all that has happened in the story, really ^^ Anyways, I hope that you like this chapter, it is one of the ones that I have enjoyed writing the most. Anyways, thanks for all the reviews, alerts and favs! I'm very glad that you like this story =D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda owns it. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Zoro's POV:

I stared continuously at the two men that had told me to stop, wondering if they were true with their intentions and meant no harm to me. Vampires weren't famous for being too accepting to werewolves and the light paranoia that now filled my body and mind didn't help a single bit in decided if I should trust them. I wanted to know what had happened while I was in my half-human and half-wolf form, but I didn't have a single way to remember it. I knew that Luffy wasn't here too, and neither were Nami or Usopp, and I wanted to know where they were, and the strange place that I was at didn't help a single bit in discovering this.

"Don't put that face, we aren't going at attack you. We are allies now" the vampire that seemed to be Marco said. Both him and Sanji were wearing cloaks that seemed to be less thick and heavy than the one I was used to se Luffy wear, to protect them from the sunlight, and I was surprised to see that they didn't seem to comfortable with them on.

"How can I be sure of that" I immediately said, clearly not trusting t hem

"We fought together there, and we are allies now. It would be stupid to attack you, doesn't matter what race you are from" Sanji then said.

I continued staring at them with mistrusting eyes, until I decided that what they said was logical and probably the truth, however I decided to maintain a suspicious attitude at least until when I knew the whole story of what had happened after I had transformed. "What happened then?" I then decided to ask, as I sat back down on the grass. I could still feel my body sore from what had happened, and I was very tired from it too, like always. I should be accustomed to this by now, but I knew that I would never manage to do this perfectly. The moon always seemed to escape all of the control that I tried to have, and always sent me into the deepest pits of pain that it could manage to find.

Both of them continued staring at me, understanding my question. "Can't you remember anything?" Sanji then asked.

"A werewolf doesn't have a conscience while he is transformed into half form during the full moon, and that is precisely the reason why a werewolf won't remember what has happened during that time" I easily replied then. I was surprised by the question that he had asked me. I thought that descriptions of werewolves and of the race characteristics were quite well known, less between humans and quite well between vampires.

"Oh" The man with the curly brow then said, as if remembering a fact that he had long forgotten. He then looked at the one who had the tattoo on his chest, as if he was asking him to decide who was going to explain what. During this time I stared at them inquiringly, demanding them to explain as soon as possible what had happened. I didn't like to be like this, completely inactive, while I didn't know what had happened to my friends and companions and without knowing what had happened. It set my nerves on edge, and I wanted to find them as soon as possible.

It was then, after some minutes in silence, that the man with the tattooed chest decided to start explaining. "How much do you remember?" He asked me.

"I remember more or less until Whitebeard and Shanks ended up in that massive hall where we were fighting" I immediately answered.

"Okay" The vampire answered. "After you transformed you started attacking all of the people around you, that were mostly government agents and vampires from the groups allied with them" He said. I gulped when I knew this. I didn't like where this was going. "You started to kill quite a number of them, and soon all of their concentration turned to you, but as you can imagine not even the vampires stood a chance. You are very strong after all, and more so in that form" Marco then continued explaining.

Sanji, seeing my facial expression decided to try and calm me down by adding an important fact. "Don't worry about what you did to us though, no damage was done to us, since you were completely surrounded by the enemy and we did a good job in avoiding your attacks" He said.

I then sighed relieved, glad that I had done nothing to my friends and allies, I would never be able to forgive myself if something like that happened. During all of my past transformations I had always been worried about doing something to Luffy, and to anyone that was near, but he had always assured to me that nothing would ever happen while he was with me, and it had been the complete truth all the times I had been with him.

"Well, the fact is that the admirals and Blackbeard stopped fighting Shanks and Whitebeard while you were transforming, and they also looked at you with very interested faces too. The thing is that then you went on and tried to attack the admirals, and you managed to put up quite a fight with them, but you soon ended up turning around to fight with others in the room. Well, the thing is that then the admirals started to fight more intensely, and also started to attack us, which forced pops and Shanks to defend us, since we are strong, but resisting the attack of two admirals while slightly possible for the strongest of us, was out of reach for the majority. Your resisted perfectly, and so did Sanji for a while, until he was wounded and I, that managed to escape damage. Well, with this they both started receiving too much damage, and then the admirals and Blackbeard, especially Blackbeard..." Marco said, suddenly closing his eyes as he obviously remembered something that was not too pleasant.

"Pops and Shanks were defeated by them" Sanji them finished saying, with an equally said voice.

"They told us, before this was going to happen, to run away and go to find the other members of the groups and the Dark King, that it was important for us to survive." Marco then added. "We managed to escape and avoid all the guards that tried to follow us, even the admirals, and we also led you towards us without any damage. We then ended up here, sometime after your transformation had finished and you were completely unconscious. However we must assume the worst for both Shanks and Pops." He then finished saying.

I was shocked by this. How could that have happened to Whitebeard and Shanks? It was completely unimaginable, completely surrealistic and out of reality. I couldn't imagine it. What had happened to them? They couldn't possibly be... could they? It was some time again after the explanation, that also passed in complete silence that I decided to ask what had happened to the other allies. "Where are the others?" I asked them, as I started to assume the worst too.

"The other ones from our side went away to inform other members of our band what happened, and they will come back soon to tell us the result of this. Meanwhile Nami, Usopp and Lucky Roo went to your headquarters to do the same thing" He explained. "They will probably come back to inform us of what happens after this, and based on this we will decided what to do after now" He then finished saying.

I nodded, and thought of what would happen. We would probably remain as allies, and even more probably as closer ones. I could even dare to say that there was a strong possibility that the two groups would 'merge' into one. However I was still wondering where Luffy and the one that seemed to be his brother were. "Do you know where Luffy and Ace are?" I then asked.

"No, we don't" Sanji quickly answered, worry evident in his eyes. I guessed that that same thing was also in mine. They were after all a bit wounded and they knew nothing of what had happened after they left. What could have possibly happened to them?

"They don't know what happened after they left, do they?" I then asked them.

"Since we didn't meet them after that happened no, they don't know"

"We must find them them" I immediately added. I wanted to find my best friend as soon as possible to inform him of what had happened. I wanted to see that he was alright, even though I knew that he was more than capable of defending himself. I wanted to see him with my own eyes. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't do anything when he could be wounded or close to death?

"How though?" Sanji asked. "Do you have an idea of where they may be?" He then asked then.

I thought for several moments, thinking of the places where Luffy could be. After the attack I doubted that he had gone back to the headquarters. It would be too strange for him to do that, because I knew that he would realise the danger that was possible to encounter there, even with how little he seemed to realise these kind of things, and he mostly went to the headquarters or other hiding places just to meet Shanks and receive another mission, so that made him being at a hiding place or at the headquarters even less possible. However I knew that he did have another ally, and he had been training with him for twenty years, until very recently. It was very possible that he was with him. "I don't know where he is right now, but it is very possible that he will be with the Dark King soon" I said.

"The Dark King? How does he know him? That man barely talks to anyone that is a member of any of the groups" Sanji said "And Ace could have led him elsewhere" He then added too.

"Luffy trained until recently with the man for twenty years, and I know that he mentioned several times to me that he was like a friend. It is very possible that Luffy is with him. Ace will most probably be with him too, after all his is-" I started saying, only to be interrupted by Marco.

"-his brother, and I know that he won't have any other place to go, he will surely realise the danger of going to a hiding place or the headquarters and he won't separate from his brother" He added then.

Sanji had a look of complete surprise on his face. He clearly hadn't expected this. "Well then, let's go there to find Luffy and Ace" He then said. Marco and I nodded and we soon started making our way towards where the Dark King was said to be most of the time at.

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Luffy's POV:

I was sitting down beneath a tree, covered by its shade while I enjoyed the feeling of being outside, and although not directly in the sun, of the daytime and of the gentle breeze that went around. I had always enjoyed being out during the day, even if I was a vampire. That custom from when I was a humans till remained, and it was something that would never change. I knew that it was something that seemed completely ridiculous to the great majority of vampires, but if I had learnt something from all of the time that I had been 'alive' it was that I remained more human than the rest of the vampires, something quite strange. I knew that Ace was inside the house, probably talking to Rayleigh or sleeping through one of his narcoleptic episodes, that he still seemed to have even though so much time had passed. I was closing my eyes, trying to relax and forget about the burning sensation in my throat and about the monster inside that was clawing and trying to make me lose control and begging me to drink some. Several days had passed since I had last drank any of it, and the effects were starting to be shown. I knew that my eyes were changing very frequently from my usual shiny and ale silver to a completely dark black, and I was trying to control this reaction and myself, something that I had become quite adept at, and that other vampires usually couldn't manage. However I knew that I would have to drink soon if I didn't want to lose control when a human around me was hurt.

My thoughts and efforts to relax were suddenly interrupted when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I quickly opened my eyes, surprised, and looked at the one who had done this, soon finding my grinning brother. "Luffy" He said, as he stared into my now silver eyes.

I stared at him, and grinned, ignoring the burning sensation in my throat. "Ace" I said, as I looked into his eyes, haooy that I could see him now and that he was alive after all.

He then sat down beside me, and then stared at the sky from beneath the hood and the hat that covered his face and body. "You can stand so much being out during the day?" he then asked.

I grinned. "Yes" I said. "I like being out during the day, but I miss the feeling of the sun on my skin though. I continue being quite human in many ways" I said.

Ace laughed at this. "You amaze me" He said "I don't like being out in the sunlight too much" He said.

I smiled at this, understanding. "I am very much like a human still" I then said again, with a grin and as I closed my eyes again, trying to control and stop the burning sensation in my throat and the retching that would surely come.

"Luffy, after that day... I thought that you had been killed. I am so glad that you are alive after all" Ace then said, after some moments of silence.

I smiled at this, with my eyes still closed. "The man converted me into a vampire, and then I was found by Shanks" I started saying "But he said that he hadn't found anyone else, so I thought the very same thing. I didn't know that you were a dhampir, so I assumed the worst. You know that I was a human, so it makes sense now" I then said. "Do you think that that vampire, Blackbeard, knew that you were a-" I started asking.

"No, he wanted to kill me after all. I don't think that he knew. Anyways, I think that only I knew about that then" He said.

I then looked at him, breaking the concentration that I had to try and stop me losing control and the reactions that I would soon have. I felt that I needed to look into his eyes. I felt that I needed to do this, and the rational part of my brain wasn't enough to stop me from doing this. We stared each other for some time, until I felt my eyes turning black again, and this was followed by a particular strong retch, that caused me to grab my neck strongly, with obvious discomfort and pain and shut my eyes strongly.

"Luffy?" Ace then asked with worry. "How long has it been since you last had blood?" He then asked me.

"A few days" I said, as I opened one eye and tried to smile reassuringly, which failed miserably due to me grabbing my neck with even more strength, and feeling the burning sensation stronger than before. "I have gone through this before. Control yourself, nothing will happen" I mentally told to myself, as I tried to stop the sick desire that I felt inside for blood.

"Luffy-" Ace started saying, as he looked at me with worried eyes. "You will die and lose control if you continue doing that, and you know that" He then said, with a comforting tone of voice, as he grabbed my hands and pulled them away from my neck.

This caused me to stop all of my thoughts, as I felt strongly the pain in my throat, and to look at him with teary eyes. Ace just smiled in a comforting way again, and then decided to hug me, again trying to comfort me. "I don't like to do this" I then said "I don't like to have to do this, not drinking or having to put a human through that" I then repeating, feeling myself closer to tears, something that I didn't like a single bit.

"You will have to, or else death awaits for you, and neither of us would like that" He then said, as he continued hugging me. "Luffy" He then said, as he inclined his head to one side.

I looked at him with curiosity and doubt, wondering what he was going to do. He didn't speak then, and instead moved his hands so that they were placed on the back of my head, and he then pushed my head towards his neck. My eyes widened as I realised what he was going to do. I didn't know how to react, or what to say. My mind was completely blank. Ace then looked at me with the same comforting smile, knowing that I knew what he was offering me.

"No, Ace. I..." I started saying desperately and with a bit of horror as I felt my eyes become even darker and myself slowly losing control to the monster inside me. The face that I could feel my dead heart beating fast didn't help a bit either. Before I could say something else Ace pushed my head closer to his neck, until my lips touched the soft skin of his neck, and that was what made me lose control. I lost control of my actions and I soon felt myself opening my mouth, and revealing my two sharp fangs, and then biting into my brother's neck, and then the burning sensation in my neck dying down, as the monster inside me started to be satisfied.

Ace couldn't take his eyes off me, and I felt his heart too beating fast during some moments. I could feel his hunger as I drank his blood, which made me think of the fairest way in which to compensate this. It was something natural to vampires when drinking blood. When you drank the blood of someone you could feel how they were feeling then, desires and emotions. Hunger was something that I could easily detect, and several other things that I couldn't place since I lacked a lot of practice in this. I then decided what to do, almost unconsciously, and I felt my hands grabbing his head in the same way that he had done before, and then drawing him closer to my very own neck, that hadn't been bit by anyone since that fateful day. I felt his lips against my skin, and then it was that he also surrendered to hunger that was without a doubt a lot less than the one that I felt, and bit into my skin.

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Rayleigh's POV:

I stared at the two of them as they talked to each other, remembering the old days when I was still with the man that became my best friend. That hat that Luffy had... it had belonged to him in that time, and then had changed into Shank's hands, ending with him. He was so similar to him, it amazed me. And even though I had already been with him twenty years the similarities never ceased to amaze me. Yes, they definitely were those that I had waited for, and there was no doubt by how they were, how they were and their very appearance. I would be able to continue going on now, and finish what had once been started.

I stared at them immersed in my thoughts, and these thoughts were only broken when I saw Ace, the one that was the son of my deceased best friend, offering his neck to the other one and this offering being accepted by the younger and more hungry one. I was amazed by this, soon remembering the meaning of this kind of gesture, whether intended like this or not. Soon enough Luffy had also offered his neck, and as they satisfied their hunger I could only think of a small forgotten piece of data about vampires, that used to be very known before, but that now wasn't given as much importance. "The ultimate display of affection of two vampires is... to drink the blood of the other" I thought, as I stared at them with surprise.

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Blackbeard's POV:

I was sitting down beside the three admirals in room at their headquarters. We were discussing what to do now, of course. We had managed to get rid of both Whitebeard and Shanks, but we had failed to retrieve their part of the scriptures, and this was what the three admirals were discussing intently as I remained in complete silence. I hadn't managed to get what I wanted, and Shanks and Whitebeard knew this. They knew it well, and that was why I thought of this as a defeat, with several good achievements, but a defeat nonetheless. I had the scriptures that the revolutionary Hunter had left all those centuries ago, and I had given them to the three admirals, who had in turn given them to their few superiors. Not that I needed them of course, because I already knew what they had, from long before of course. Even before the Revolutionary Hunter had discovered that important fact. I knew what I needed to get what I wanted, and yet I hadn't managed to get an important thing that both that kid I had transformed so much time ago and his so called 'brother' had. I had failed completely, but it wasn't like I would tell that to the other three. The three of them knew nothing. Nothing. And I would do nothing to mend that, since I didn't really need them.

"What do you suggest to do now, Blackbeard, since we don't have the scriptures done by the King of the Vampires?" I heard Kizaru suddenly ask.

I turned around quickly and stared at the three dhampirs before me, knowing my answer already "We already have half of the process to get what we want" I started saying "It is obvious that they will follow their part, we just have to followe their game and prepare ourselves to get what we need, the 'stars', that you all know what are, and follow their game, to defeat them in the end and so get what we want" I immediately said quite calmly "Nothing will stop us, and even less now that their leaders, that were the strongest, have died" I then finished saying.

Two of the admirals nodded, agreeing with what I had said, and looked confidently. However one of them, Aokiji, looked at me with suspicious eyes. He clearly didn't trust me.

"I will have to be careful about that one" I thought, as I immediately started to form plans of the future. I would get what I wanted, and no one would stop me. Not even the chosen ones or any other powerful man in this world. I would get what I hadn't managed to get once. Yes. I would manage to do it.


	21. Chapter 21

Here is chapter 21! I hope you like it! I think that funnily enough this is the chapter with less dialogue in the whole story, but oh well. Anyways, thanks for all of the reviews, favs and alerts! Thank you all for them ^^ Well, enjoy

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. However i do own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

I was currently walking through a completely deserted land beside my brother. It was cold, very cold, and even if I was a vampire and more able to stand cold temperatures because of that I was still feeling quite cold. The ground was completely frozen, and it was snowing quite heavily too, and as proof of that there were several patches of frozen snow on the ground. It was very windy, and this didn't help to get rid of the cold that was all around this area, but luckily the sun shined very weakly here, and even though it had risen very few hours ago now it seemed like it was night time. Of course this lowered the temperatures, but thankfully it meant that the snow wouldn't shine too brightly for us to be bothered by it and that we wouldn't have to wear at all times our hoods, that combined with the fact that there wasn't a single human soul around here made our travel easier. We wanted to reach the temple as soon as possible, since we were in a hurry after all. There were barely any plants in this place, and the only ones that could be found were very small moss-like ones. There also were no trees in a very large distance.

Where were we going, you may wonder? Well, we were going to one of the two temples where one of the two cups needed to reach the 'Land of God' was at. It had taken us several days to realise where the temple was. We knew that the cups were at opposite places, but since nothing more was said we had had to discover that on our own by rereading the text all over again and reading other even older texts that could have few hints. 'We' might be an exaggeration here, since I am a complete failure at discovering these kind of things, like many of my friends knew, it was more like 'Ace and Rayleigh' had discovered the location of the temple. Yes. That sounded better. We had been walking for days by now, completely non-stop. It was very tiring because of the extreme temperatures and how there was barely anything to eat, of course we had an advantage over any human that came over here in terms of food, an advantage that I didn't really like, but that I ended up appreciating. Barely any animals could be seen too, and the only ones that were seen were usually small, with lots of hair and few meat. These animals also camouflaged very well, and were easy to lose, something that I didn't really like, and Ace too. Even with these things we had managed to catch several of them, which had ended up being our dinner, even if it couldn't be considered truly to be that. There was something about meat that calmed the thirst of blood a bit, and it probably was the fact that the blood of the animals made up for a bit of the blood that we should consume. It tasted different, and I could tell that the monster inside me didn't feel too relieved with it, but it stopped the pain quite a bit, and that was enough for me. Of course I still liked eating meat quite a lot, and nothing was going to change that, no matter what I was or what happened.

I was wearing an orange coat that Rayleigh had given me, and Ace was wearing a slightly similar long coat that served perfectly the purpose of protecting him from the cold that could affect him. My coat also did that in part, but the fact that I was wearing my usual short trousers and the sandals that I always used to wear defeated partly the purpose of wearing the coat, since I got cold anyways because of that. Rayleigh hadn't liked this too much, but he knew me too well to try and stop me from doing this. I chuckled at this thought. Yes, the old man did know me quite well, and he had often told me that I remembered him of an old friend, but he had never told me who I remembered him of. I didn't know much about his past, and I guessed that it would be quite a long time until I did, but I didn't mind too much about this, even if this very thing surprised and annoyed many of the people that I knew. Nami, Zoro, Usopp, Chopper... All of them had been surprised by this. Well, Chopper probably now as much as them, but still. I was only interested in one man, and I still would be. He would pay, yes he would. However recently, after knowing about the prophecy, I had ended up becoming interested in that stone of wishes. It would help me achieve several things and aims that I had recently thought of. Getting to it did seem to be quite a problem, but that would be resolved later. It would.

I chuckled as I remembered what Rayleigh had told us during the days that we had spent with him. He was so funny, even when he didn't want to. I grabbed some parts of my straw hat and brought them down to cover my face, out of habit, as I remembered this and more funny moments that I had gone through with the man. I hoped that I would see him soon, I really did. Ace's attention soon was caught by my chuckling and he then turned around and looked at me, with an amused face as he watched me laughing. I looked at him and flashed one of my infamous grins, which in turn caused him to grin too. I was happy to be with him again, a happiness that had been there since I had first seen him in that hiding place and that didn't seem to disappear. Recently I had decided that I would not let go of my brother from now on. I would defend him always, and I would not let something like what had happened 810 years ago to happen again. This time I would be the one to protect him, instead of the contrary. I was stronger now, and I would get even stronger if it was needed. I stared at him for several moments even after he had turned around to look at the frozen land in front of us, with no doubt in deep thoughts about who knew what. My eyes ended up focusing on his neck. More precisely on two marks on it, that had been created by my fangs. I felt a strange feeling going right through me as I looked at them. Usually wounds disappeared very quickly on vampires, and I didn't expect this to be any different, but it had already been there since he had forced me to feed on his blood. The marks were staring to slowly fade as the wound was slowly healed, but it seemed to be a lot slower than usually. I would ask the old man later, yes I would.

As I walked I couldn't help but to continue staring at the marks, as if there was some sort of strange attraction. As I did so I couldn't help but to remember that moment, and the taste of his blood. It disgusted me to think of this in this way, but the flavour still lingered in my mouth. It hadn't been like the other times I had drank blood from humans, Zoro or other beings. This time it had tasted _good_, _attracting_ and _desirable_. I had heard several times before vampires talking about the effect of blood, and I had felt the need to drink it and a desire to have it, but this was different. That desire seemed to be out of pure necessity, and it wasn't like this one. This one seemed to be because of how the blood was, because of how it tasted. It had tasted sweetly. Very sweetly. It had been like the best flavour that had ever entered my mouth, even more than meat, and it seemed to have had the same effect of that of a drug. My body now asked me for more. The monster inside me asked me for more, not out of necessity and for survival but because of desire, and even though it didn't cause me to feel in pain it had a more strong effect on me that I had never felt, and that I had some trouble to control, even though my eyes were still silver and I was in full control. What was this? And why did it happen? I didn't understand it. I unconsciously lifted my hand and touched the mark that also was on my neck, and touched it gently, as if remembering. No one had drunk my blood as it was now, no one, and I couldn't help but wonder what my blood tasted like, and if it had had the same effect in the man that had been the first one to drink it, not knowing that he was thinking about the very same thing.

We spent the next hours altering between a comfortable silence during which we thought about several things and long periods of time during which we chatted about several things. It was nice, and even if sometimes it was hard to understand each other due to the loud sound that the strong wind created on our ears I greatly appreciated doing this. It was nice, and it was something that I had greatly missed during these long years that I had thought him to be dead. I still remembered the long times that we would talk to each other after training and fighting each other when we were still human. Those had been very nice times, and I remembered them very dearly. I now was getting the same feeling that I used to get then, who knows out of what exactly, but I really liked feeling like this.

As I walked forward I could only continue staring at what was in front of me, not really noticing what was there, since I had become bored by the constant white land in front of me and I had stopped paying any attention to it. I wanted to reach already the place where we were going to, but it didn't seem to be too close, and that made me feel very impatient. Soon enough minutes passed, and as these turned into long hours we finally reached our destination.

I was amazed by how we had ended up managing to reach this place. I was surprised, since the enormous area around it was exactly the same without any major landscape differences that could help a traveller and we hadn't had an exact map of the location of the temple where one of the cups was located, which made things more difficult. Right now I was staring at the lonely figure of the building that was very similar to a very large temple, which reminded me of some sort of cathedral. It was big, no, enormous, and it had a strange aura around it. An aura of danger, hostility and... loneliness. It wasn't too inviting, but we hadn't expected a very nice inviting and friendly aura either, and the dark aura that surrounded the lonely building didn't stop us from going towards what seemed to be the main door and entering. Upon closer look the temple seemed to be like a palace of ice. All its walls were made of ice, at least apparently, and as we both found out when entering the building we saw that the entrance and probably the rest of the rooms were also like this, completely made of ice and with even objects made of ice. There were several stairs that led up and down, and there were very small windows that barely let any light from outside enter, but strangely the whole place seemed to be illuminated by a strange bright light that reminded me of that of the sun, but that didn't hurt me or bother me in any way, which was strange. The whole place seemed to be very cold, even colder than the outside, but there was no strong wind in here. I looked around, staring at the details of the room with interest, and soon I noticed that Ace now had his hat and a hood covering his face, obviously bothered by the light of the room. I could recognise on him the same reaction that every vampire had with the sun, but why was he reacting like this when it didn't affect me?

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Zoro's POV:

It had taken us _days_ to locate this town, and that was because since neither Marco, Sanji or I had any idea of where we could find the Dark King Rayleigh we had had to conduct an investigation of the different places he was usually seen at, some rumours of places where fights had occurred and that he had been involved in and the very presence of government agents, in between many other things that we had considered. It had been all of this and days of thinking that had made us decide to go to this town to try and find the man, and he better be with Luffy or be of help or I would start getting impatient and desperate, which wouldn't be good, and that is not even mentioning the bad temper that I seemed to have lately after fighting over stupid things with Sanji, much to my and his annoyance.

We were currently walking through the crowded streets of the city, and it was daytime, much to Sanji's and Marco's displeasure, which now had to wear those light cloaks that they had and cover their faces with hoods. I, of course, didn't mind this at all, and this seemed to irritate Sanji for some reason, but this wasn't what was bothering right now. Well, it was, but there was also another reason. We had been walking for hours already, and yet there were no signs of the man we were searching for, and it was this that was starting to make me annoyed. He was a very powerful man! A vampire! He couldn't be so hard to find, could he? All of this was starting to make me too annoyed for my own good, and I could sense a similar emotion in Sanji, probably due to the same reasons as I, as much as I hated to admit it. However Marco still managed to maintain his calmness, but who knows for how long though.

It was hours later that Marco ended up pointing at what seemed to be the most normal bar in the world.

"He is here2 He said, as he went towards the door of entrance of the bar and entered it

Both Sanji and I followed him inside and soon we found that the bar that seemed to be so normal at first was indeed quite strange inside. There weren't many people inside it even though this was usually a time where the bars were full of people, and it wasn't too noisy. My eyes soon landed on an old man that was talking with the bartender. Both seemed to be friends. The three of us got closer to him, all feeling who he was. It was Marco the first one to speak outof us three.

"Rayleigh, we need your help" He said, which caused the other man to grin.


	22. Chapter 22

Here is chapter 22! I hope you enjoy it Thanks for all of the reviews, favs and alerts, they are greatly appreciated! *gives cookies* Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda owns it. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Ace's POV:

I followed my brother into the temple, expecting it to be in almost complete darkness, seeing how it was outside and by the small windows that it had, but I was surprised to find a strange light inside it, that seemed to emanate from somewhere that I couldn't really locate. It was after a few seconds that I started feeling an alien burning sensation on my skin, that at first felt distant, as if it was an illusion, causing me to ignoring it. However, it wasn't until I felt a stronger burning sensation that I realised that the light was having the same effect as the sun on my skin. I hissed in pain, suddenly feeling the burning sensation increasing, and I quickly pulled up the hood of my coat and covered my face as much as could. I covered my face as much as I could, trying to get rid of the burning sensation and of further pain appearing. I closed my eyes due to the bright light, and I couldn't contain another hiss that was caused because of it. I didn't like this place. This light, even though it wasn't the one of the sun, damaged me. Why was this? How could this happen?

I then decided to look at Luffy, to see if he was experiencing the same thing that I was, since he was a vampire as well, but I was surprised to see that he wasn't bothered a single bit by the light. In fact, quite the opposite. He had his hood completely down and was showing no signs of being affected by the light, and it seemed that he wasn't taking the coat that covered him because of the cold. I soon saw him turning around to look at me, and I immediately saw his face of surprise when he saw me obviously being affected by the light. In fact, it didn't just seemed to be the light, the whole atmosphere of this place seemed to have this repulsive effect on me, but why?

"What is this?" I heard Luffy ask, as he looked at me with concern

"I have no idea why it's affecting me and not you. We're both vampires after all" I immediately replied, suddenly wondering what kind of effect this would have on other vampires. How could this happen?

Luffy then remained quiet for some time, as he looked around the room we were currently at. I watched him with interest, wondering what he was noticing.

"This whole place has a dangerous atmosphere around it" he said. "And a strange welcoming warmth too, but it isn't related to the temperature of the place" He then added, as I saw him suppress a chill.

"I feel that too, but the warmth seems to not be so welcoming for me though" I said, as I looked directly into Luffy's eyes and becoming trapped by their magnetic effect.

Luffy then looked me with pity, as if blaming himself for the effect the light had on me. "You're okay, aren't you Ace?" He then asked, with clear worry.

I gritted my teeth, just in the way that I always used to do when we were both children. How many times had Luffy killed me off? "You should worry about yourself Lu. You're the weak one here" I then answered the younger boy, containing myself from punching him. We didn't need that now, and to say the truth I wasn't as annoyed as I remembered that I had been in the past.

Luffy grinned at this in a very teasing manner. "Nah" He then said, in that teasing tone of voice, clearly putting in serious doubts my statement. "You didn't manage to beat me there" He then added, with an even wider grin. I really wondered how he managed to pull off such big grins so many times. I really did.

I chuckled. "You're the weakest one Luffy, and you know it" I then replied, int he same teasing manner.

Luffy opened his mouth to reply, but before he had the time to do so a very loud and distant screech was heard in the whole room from the distance. It made chills go up my spine, and it only made me wonder what kind of creature had made that sound. It had to be a massive one.

"What was that?" Luffy then asked, as soon as the sound had faded away. I could see that he was nervous, and I was in the same state. This place was very strange. First the light, and then the sound... who knew what else this place contained.

"I don't know" I then replied "But we better continue going on though" I then finished saying, as I took one step forwards. I had noticed what seemed to be some kind of scriptures on the wall ahead of me, and I knew that Luffy had noticed them too.

I went towards the inscription. It was vaguely familiar, but it took some time for me to realise where I had seen it before. A moon and a star were clearly recognisable on it, and there were several roman numerals forming a circle around both of them. Near the moon and the star there were several pictures that were very visible. I could make out the form of two cups, one right behind the star and another one behind the moon. The cup behind the star had an orange colour, that went along very well with the yellow one of the star, and the colour of the cup behind the moon had a bluish colour, that contrasted deeply with the one of the other cup, but that went along fine with the grey or silver colour of the moon. In between of them there were four round golden circles in an arrangement that reminded to the shape of a rhombus. All of these figures were inside a fifth circle, that had clear golden borderline. This circle then had a clear dark strike right through it, that divided the whole thing in two semi circles, with the star on one side and the moon on the other. Looking closer to it, it seemed like the star was inscribed on the cup behind it, and the same thing for the moon. The side of the star had a colour very similar to white, and the one of the moon had a very contrasting blackish colour. On the base of the figure there was a clear inscription.

"Diei et noctis aeternae" I muttered, as I read it, remembering that I had seen the same symbol, only more worn out, inscribed on a strange fountain near the marine headquarters.

"You can read those symbols?" I suddenly heard my little brother ask, with a surprised tone of voice.

"What?" I asked, confused. There was nothing strange about these symbols.

"The symbols are those used by the ancient people" Luffy said "I didn't know that you knew how to read them" He suddenly said

It was then when I realised that the symbols that were inscribed on the seemingly frozen wall were in fact, like Luffy had said, those used by the ancients. So how had I read them? "I didn't know that I could read these symbols" I then said to Luffy.

He looked at me, confused, but then decided to forget about the whole thing. It wasn't like we were going to get more answers on this mysterious ability. I looked at him as he continued staring at the symbol, my sight glued to his as I remembering how him biting me had felt like, and how his blood had tasted like too. It had been nothing like the blood that I had drank on other occasions. This one was more desirable than that, and it made me wish for more deep down for reasons that were not related to feeding and survival, and that I couldn't recognise. My hand went unconsciously to the two marks that showed where he had bit me, and I felt myself lightly blush at that. I remembered Marco mentioned something about biting other vampires back in the days when I had just turned into one, but I couldn't remember a thing about what he had said. Suddenly Luffy's voice that suddenly brought me out of my thoughts.

"It is similar to the medallion" He muttered in a low vice, but loudly enough for me to understand.

It then hit me. Yes. The picture was very similar to our medallion. Too much for it to be a coincidence. I touched the wall, wondering what it was like and searching for any other symbols that could have been there, eroded, but finding nothing. It was then when Luffy touched the symbol too, and when he did this it glowed very brightly, which forced me to close my eyes and bend down my head in a desperate attempt to cover my face and exposed skin. A loud sound was heard, and by the time when I had opened my eyes the part of the wall where the symbol was had disappeared, and instead there was a path, illuminated the same way as the room we currently were at, in front of us. I saw Luffy step inside it, and I soon followed him inside the path.

We walked for a very long time inside the path or corridor that had opened for us. It had been very strange too. Why had it opened when we had both had touched it? I had a feeling that told me that this was quite a big and important thing, and this feeling didn't get off me. I would better look into this later, if I could. All of the things that had happened to us in here up until now were too strange to be a coincidence, and then there was the medallion. There was something suspicious here. Something that I could sense that we hadn't been told, and this was making me nervous. What had it been that we weren't told? What was it?

As we walked further down the corridor the light always persisted, and from time to time loud scratching sounds were heard, that made chills go up our spines. The corridor only had one direction, there were no doors or other turns that led to other paths. It was clearly not like a labyrinth, and instead it seemed like it was designed to lead whoever entered this place to a certain room, that we found a long time after entering the corridor. It was after hours of walking that we finally reached a big room, that was about the same size as the one where we had found the inscription. There was a massive door in front of us, that apparently was made of ice, and in front of it... In front of it were some statues of animals that seemed to be made of ice in front of the door.

We stepped into the room, both of us eyeing suspiciously the creatures in front of us, and went towards the door. As we got closer to the door the statues remained still, like they were obviously supposed to do, but as soon as we touched the door a loud _'crack' _was heard. We both turned around to find the statues of the animals now on their feet, moving towards us at an impressive velocity with clear aggressive intentions. We both quickly defended ourselves with a velocity and a strength that could only be gained through experience, and then jumped away from the creatures, quickly getting into a defensive stance.

"What are they?" Luffy asked loudly

"I don't have a single idea!" I quickly answered him as I kicked one of the creatures on its 'stomach', which caused it to be sent flying backwards, crash onto a wall and then crumble into thousands of pieces.

I continued attacking the creatures that came at me and defending myself from them, knowing that Luffy was doing the exact same thing. They were strange, and as I touched them I could feel a slight burn mark appearing on me, very similar to the ones that I got when my bare skin was exposed to the sun.

Minutes passed, and soon enough both Luffy and I had finished destroying the creatures. I could see that Luffy had to recur to using his dagger. Had his attacks not worked on the creatures? We were both breathing quite heavily, and we soon turned around to face the enormous door in the room that had been guarded by those strange creatures. We both then opened it, and entered the room it led to.

This one was an even bigger one. It was massive, enormous, gigantic. There wasn't a word that could possibly describe how big this room was. It was completely round and flat, with what seemed to be a small podium right in the middle of it. On top of it was...

"The cup!" Luffy shouted, excited.

I looked at it. It was shining very brightly, and it clearly was the source of all of that light that filled this whole place. It was shining so brightly that I couldn't even look at it due to how bright it was. Of course Luffy could look at it without suffering any damages. On another side of the room there was another enormous frozen creature that took up almost half of the room. It looked very ferocious, and as if it had been frozen while it was guarding the precious cup.

Luffy then started running suddenly towards the cup, not paying any attention to reason or precaution, both of which I seriously doubted that he had. I immediately started running after him, as I tried to tell him to stop running and to wait for me, since there could be many dangers inside the room. Of course, this failed, and Luffy only stopped when he was barely ten metres away from the cup, when a sudden voice was heard to one side of him.

"Hey!" The person shouted.

We both turned around, wondering who had said that, and soon we both saw a very old-looking man, that walked with a very old looking wooden cane. He seemed tired, but despite his old appearance he didn't seem too weak, and had a strange aura around him. He wasn't human, but he wasn't either a vampire. What was he?

"Who are you?" I heard Luffy ask the man, that was slowly making his way towards us.

The man ignored our question. "You arrived at last" he then said, confusing both of us.


	23. Chapter 23

Here is chapter 23! I hope that you enjoy it! I really didn't expect this chapter to pass the 3000 words, but in the end it did. Well, thanks to all of you that have read, added the story to your favs and alert list and reviewed it!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda owns it. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

It had taken me quite some time to realise that there was someone else inside the room, since I couldn't stop staring at the cup that was on top of that strange pedestal. It was when I was several metres away from the pedestal that held the cup when the I heard the voice of an old man behind us.

"Hey!" I heard him shout.

Both Ace and I immediately turned around and looked at the man that had 'interrupted' us. I noticed that he was walking with the help of what seemed to be a cane, but I immediately realised that he wasn't weak at all. He clearly wasn't an old human man, but I didn't know what he was though. He wasn't a vampire, that was clear. He too wasn't a human or a werewolf either, so what was he?

"Who are you?" I asked the man, with the serious tone of voice that I seemed to rarely use.

He ignored my question, and instead continued walking towards us. I was a few metres away from the cup, and while Ace was near me he was a few metres away from me too. "You arrived at last" The old man then said.

This confused me, and made me incline my head to one side, as I could almost feel an interrogation sign coming out of my head. What did he mean with that? I could tell that Ace was incredibly surprised by this statement, and as confused as me.

"You are really similar to them, as it was to be expected" The old man then said, as he took a few steps towards us and then stopped suddenly, when he was at the same distance from both of us.

"Who are you?" I then asked him again.

The man chuckled and then looked at me, as he sat down on piece of ice that was on the floor. "I'm Naguri" He then said, with a weak tone of voice, not bothering to say anything else, instead focused in staring at both Ace and me.

"What are you?" Ace then asked.

The man ignored the question again, and instead got up again, and pointed at the cup, that was glowing with that strange bright light, but nonetheless I could manage to see its colours without any damage being done to my eyes. It was just like it had been shown in that painting in the entrance of this place, with that colour that warm orange colour and that yellow star on one side. It had some writings on it, that I could see but not read, since I was completely unable to read ancient scriptures.

"Do you know what that is?" The man then asked.

I was confused by this question, and didn't know well what to answer. I could only stare at the man with confusion until Ace decided to answer the question.

"It is the cup that will open the path to the 'Land of God'" Ace then answered, with a determined look on his face that easily told that he would fight if anything strange happened.

The man laughed loud and hard, which caused Ace to grit his teeth, clearly annoyed. "You could call it that, but you are so wrong, young one. So wrong and lacking so much knowledge" He then said, earning a death glare from Ace.

"Explain yourself!" Ace demanded.

The man grinned, and then looked at Ace right into his eyes, with a strong and determined look. With the eyes of a creature that clearly wasn't human. "I'm surprised that you, so similar to the original two know nothing about this yet" He said. "But then again it was to be expected, so much information was lost" He said, more to himself than to us.

"What original ones?" I then asked, wondering what he meant.

The man looked at me, as if knowing that I would end up asking that question. "You know about the prophecy, don't you?" He asked.

"We do" Ace quickly answered.

"And about how the first and only expedition to the 'Land of God'?" He then asked again.

"We have been told several things about it" Ace replied then again, confidently.

"But you clearly haven't been told everything about this yet, and it won't be my duty to explain it all to you. If you don't know yet it is because you must get to know of this later" The man said. "However, I it will be essential for you to know this to continue" He then finished saying.

I looked at the man with curiosity, not really bothered by the fact that some knowledge was missing, but wondering what could it be though. Ace looked curious about this too, but I could tell that he was mainly annoyed by the man.

"You see, this cup isn't just an object to be used to enter that place" The man started saying "It is more than that. It is a mystical object, as you could call it, that represents along with its twin and opposite cup a certain even t that happened long ago, in that expedition" He then said. By now I was quite excited by the fact that I was going to be told a story, even if a bit childish, and I immediately sat beside the man, looking at him with interest. Ace remained on his feet, but soon enough he was sitting down too.

"What happened then?" I asked, with obvious interest.

"You know that in between the people that entered that other world there was one that desired an object that was there and that it gave the person that used it whatever he or she wished for, but with a great price. When they entered that other world the humans on that first expedition found out that there were very few other beings residing in that world, what we would call 'spirits' here. These spirits were, or used to be, the race that lived in that world, and were very powerful. They decided to reward some of the humans that had entered that world by going back with them to the human world, but only those that they deemed suitable. Each one of these would give each human a different type of power and ability, that you now call the "races", and turned them into something else, not letting them be human again. All the humans that received one of these spirits were called the 'chosen ones'. However, one of these 'chosen ones' wished to get that stone, as I told you earlier and you already know. He went to get it, but he soon found out that another one of the chosen ones was expecting him to do this, and had been waiting for him to appear there and fight him to defend this stone. The spirit that this man had received was the one that used to defend the stone most of the time. It is important for you to know that while most of the spirits started a different 'race' there were some that gave very similar powers, since some of the spirits were more closely related than others." The man said, stopping for a moment too look at us.

Neither Ace or I said anything, since we were both completely absorbed by the story, and soon the man continued narrating it again.

"Anyways the fight between these two started, and soon the best friend of this man appeared to defend the other when he was about to get killed, and soon the fight turned into a bloody and long one. The fight only ended when the man that wanted the stone for himself managed to give a very bad wound the one that had been defending it, but then something happened. The spirit that had decided to be with this man decided to sacrifice himself for him, and took all of the damage for him, which ultimately killed this spirit. In his last moments this spirit, seeing how this man wouldn't let himself be stopped decided to do something else to stop this from happening, and force this newly discovered world to make the people who had entered it to go back to their own one, in what would usually be considered the normal process of doing this. However, he also did something else. He grabbed other important objects, and created a prophecy, that said as following:

_'When the two halves meet each other the stars will die, and when night and day are reunited the path to the 'Land of God' will open to the chosen ones. The last and original plan will start, and the only way for it to be stopped is for the two halves, night and day, to suffer a great loss, that will stop this and change everything'_

This is the original version of the prophecy, the one that was created by the spirit to certify that the man who wanted the stone would be killed and that he would be stopped. From the humans there he chose two that would eventually lead to the other man being stopped, and to these two he gave each of them a cup, one for each half. He then also managed to send to the human world some other objects, and all of these would allow the portal to this other world to be opened again, only by those chosen ones" He then said, stopping for a long time.

I was about to talk and say something else when the man resumed his talking and continued with his story, that finished soon after though.

"However in the way back the humans that hadn't received a spirit all died, all expect the one whose spirit had been killed, that survived as a clear indication that although human, was still a chosen one. This is how the two cups are related to all of this, and why they must only be held by those destined to stop the final plan." The man then finished saying. "And precisely why this one must remain here, awaiting its legitimate owner, and not just two ignorant children" he then finally said, before he went completely silent.

I glared at the man. He was really saying that we wouldn't be able to get that cup? And all because he wanted to keep it here? No. I would stop Blackbeard, and he wouldn't stop me. Not him or anyone else. I looked at Ace, and I soon knew by just looking at him that very similar thoughts were going through his head too.

"I don't care what you say! I will get that cup" I then shouted at the man, as I dashed towards him, prepared to attack.

"Luffy's right, you won't manage to stop us!" Ace shouted too, as he prepared to attack the man.

Soon enough I was bare centimetres away from the man, and I had already prepared to attack him with a deadly technique that I used with my silver dagger. I moved it forwards to defeat or kill him in one blow, but things didn't go as expected, and I soon found myself going right through the man's body and crashing into the cold and seemingly frozen floor.

"What was that?" I thought with shock, as I crashed into the floor. I soon got up, and looked at another point of the hall, where the man now was. How was that possible? I knew that my attack had hit him, but instead it had gone right through him.

"Did you never wonder how I knew all of this?" The man asked, with a grin.

I looked at him with a confused face, not having expected this to happen. The man had seemed like an ally from the start after all! However I could see that Ace was looking at the man with an "I had a feeling that this would happen" Face.

"Who are you?" Ace then asked, with a determined tone of voice as he got closer to me, with a clear protective objective.

The man laughed. "My name really is Naguri. I am one of the humans that were on that first expedition" He said.

I was shocked by this, but it did make sense. The only way that he could know so many things about what had happened was because he had been there.

"Why are you here, in this temple?" Ace then asked again "So close to the object that opens the way to that place and yet not getting it?" Ace then finished saying.

"That is because I can't get it! And you won't either!" The man then shouted, as he suddenly vanished in the air.

We looked around us, confused, and it was only then when I realised of the presence of the massive ice figure that also was in the room. I looked at it with suspicion, as I suddenly felt life in it, similar to what had happened to the 'statues' earlier, but this was different. It was another feeling that was completely different. It reminded me of that of another race, and it seemed dangerous and powerful. Soon a loud 'crack' was heard, and this was followed by the eyes of the beast opening, revealing a pair of yellow eyes very similar to those of a cat. After this more sounds were heard, and in no time the creature wasn't covered in ice, but instead was on its four legs, standing mighty and powerful, as it looked down to us.

"A dragon!" I shouted, immediately recognising the creature by what I had heard about them. There were very few of them nowadays, and there weren't very common to see either. Not much was known about dragons other than the fact that many types of them existed with different characteristics that depended on the area that they lived in. They were said to be extremely cunning creatures that even possessed some magic in them, which allowed them to do many things.

I remained beside Ace, as I got hold of my weapons and got ready to fight. We would take the cup, and nothing would stop us. The dragon then roared loudly, and seemed to get prepared to attack. It was enormous, but it fit perfectly well inside this massive room, that even gave him more than enough room to move around. I knew that Ace now had his weapons in his hands, and we were both staring at the millenary creature that was in front of us. It had a dark colour, almost black, and his wings were huge and had a slightly paler colour in the 'membrane' that would allow him to fly, something that he wouldn't be able to do inside this room due to the size. It allowed him to move around comfortably and him to stand on two legs, if that was possible, but flying was out of reach though. The dragon suddenly roared again, and this time fire was spit from his mouth, aimed directly at us. We both jumped to our sides, successfully avoiding the hit, which then made the dragon turn around to face one of us, and that one of us was me.

"Luffy!" Ace shouted, as he realised what the dragon was going to do.

"I'll be okay, you attack from behind!" I shouted back at Ace then, as I watched the moves of the dragon, that wouldn't doubt in attacking me now.

The dragon opened his mouth to spit fire again at me, but as soon as I saw him doing this I jumped high in the air, towards the dragon's head, and kicked him with all the strength that I could gather there, which made his head crash into the ground due to the brutal impact. Ace was currently attacking the dragon's back legs and stomach with a weapon very similar to the one that Whitebeard had, only the whole thing as quite smaller and the wooden side that held the blade was shorter too, and it also had a longer blade in comparison. I heard the dragon growl, in pain or with anger, and soon I saw the dragon moving his tail at an incredible speed, trying to hit Ace with it. I didn't have more time for looking at Ace though, as soon the dragon lifted his head once again, and glared at me with those yellow eyes. The dragon then lifted one of his front legs, and soon started attacking me with it quite quickly, combining it with bites and even fire that he spit. I soon was jumping up and down and dodging the attacks most of the time, attacking the dragon whenever I could, but without much of a result with this. I looked at Ace and saw that he also wasn't having much of an effect on the dragon, and I looked at him as he dodged the tail of the dragon and attacked him as strongly as he could, but the dragon still had strength. How would we do this?

The dragon then hit me with his front leg, and sent my flying to another part of the room, above the body of the dragon. To stop myself from being hurt by landing in a bad way I grabbed tighter my dagger, and as I soon was close to the dragon's outer layer of scales I sunk it in the dragon's body, as a way of both attacking him and avoiding hitting the ground at the speed that I was currently at. This worked out nicely, and soon I was on my feet on the ground, near my 'brother' and the dragon had an incredibly big gash that went from his back to one of his legs. It wasn't too deep, but it was deep enough to cause some pain and damage. The dragon then started turning towards us, as it roared with anger and his blood dropped on the ground, as red as ever.

"We need to find a way of dealing damage enough to hind and stop him between the two of us" Ace then said, once the dragon was almost looking at us.

"Yes" I said, not saying anything else since I saw that the dragon was now looking at us and about to attack us too in any moment.

I jumped at the same time as Ace did, dodging successfully the flames that the dragon suddenly spit and then going towards the head of the dragon, as my brother did the same. The dragon looked at us cautiously as he saw both of us grab our weapons and get prepared to attack him in the head area. This time I was holding my gun, and pointing it directly at the area where the brain of the dragon was. As a 'click' was heard the dragon turned towards me, forgetting about the danger of the other one that wanted to attack him, and tried to stop me unsuccessfully with his paws, which I managed to dodge by using the very body of the dragon, which was quite close, to distance myself from the blows. As I did this and continued to take the dragon's attention to ensure that Ace would be able to do his attack. Soon I saw Ace attack the head of the dragon with the blade, with all the strength that he could gather. The blade sunk into the creature's head, killing it. Ace got back his blade and then managed to land on the ground relatively well, as he managed to avoid falling with too much speed or force, but fell once he landed. I helped him get up as we both looked at the dragon. It wasn't moving, and soon we saw the whole body of it vanish into the air, as if it had been an illusion, substituted by something strange and glowing that reminded me of some sort of powder.

Soon we were alone again inside the room, alone, with neither the dragon nor the old man in sight.

"Let's get the cup now" Ace said

I nodded, and soon we were running towards the pedestal, where the cup still was at. The closer we got to the pedestal and the cup the more that Ace hid beneath his hood and his coat, obviously not liking the light that emanated from the cup and that I found bearable and almost attracting. Once I was in front of it I grabbed the cup, which caused the light to turn even brighter for a few seconds, after which the light completely disappeared. I grinned, glad that we had at last the first object that we would need to get to that place, and soon the cup was kept inside Ace's bag. He was smiling too at how finally we had managed to get this, and it was then, once we had gotten the cup, that another loud mechanical sound was heard, and another door opened, this one probably leading to the exit of the place. We walked towards it, and we didn't notice the illusion again of the man sitting now on top of the pedestal, with a grin.

"It is them after all. I wonder how things will have turned out now. I hope you knew what you were doing, dark king" he muttered, as we went out of the room, completely unaware of this and of the man's words.


	24. Chapter 24

Here is chapter 24! I hope that you all enjoy it! I don't really have much to say here this time, so let's just go n with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Zoro's POV:

We all sat were standing inside that bar looking at Rayleigh, who was observing us with an interested face and a smile. That smile on his face... I had only heard about him because what Luffy had told me about his training with him from time to time, but that smile that had made me suppose that he already knew who we were and why we had been trying to found him. Yes, he surely already knew this, he wasn't called the 'Dark King' for anything, and I had heard Shanks even refer to him once as 'the one who knew it all', but I doubted that many people called him that. He seemed like a suspicious and even dangerous man, but I decided to trust him since he had been teaching Luffy for a long time, and was one of my best friend's friends. It was just because of that that I had decided to go to him to ask where Luffy was and to trust him, if it hadn't been because of that it would be a far opposite thing.

"So you're 'Marco the phoenix'" Rayleigh said, he looked at Marco with interest. "I have heard many things about you from Whitebeard, how is the old man?" Rayleigh asked the blonde man with spiky hair some time after Marco asked him to help us.

Marco looked like he was about to answer something, but I interrupted him and answered Rayleigh instead. "You already know what has happened, don't you Rayleigh?" I asked the man "so why do you ask us what has happened'" I then finished saying.

The old man laughed, and I heard the woman who was the bartender chuckle too. "Just like I expected the 'Vampire hunter' Zoro to react" He said "You don't have that fame in vain after all" He said, which caused me to grit my teeth, annoyed. "What help do you want from an old man like me?" Rayleigh then asked

"Where are Luffy and Ace?" I quickly asked with a menacing tone of voice. I could sense how strong the man was even though he was hiding it perfectly. The wolf part of me was sensing this, telling me just how strong this man was, even more so than his fame told.

The man chuckled. "Luffy and his brother were with me for several days, but they already departed fromt his place" Rayleigh said

"Where are they now then?" Sanji asked then

"They are far away from here, trying to get something that will be essential for both of them" Rayleigh said.

"What do you mean?" Marco said then. I was wondering the exact same thing about what Rayleigh had said. What were they searching for? In between all of us three we had known the two of them for a very long time, and I was sure that just like I was Luffy's best friend Marco and Sanji were Ace's best friends. I knew that Luffy told me everything that happened to him, and I was sure that Ace did the same thing with the other two, so why then hadn't I heard anything about finding an important object and about its finality? I would have known if Luffy had been hiding me something, but it was clear that neither Sanji nor Marco knew about this. What had Rayleigh told them during the time that they were with him?

"I see that you have never been told about this" I then heard Rayleigh mutter. "Sit down, I will explain everything to you" He then said. It was then when I noticed that the bar was now completely empty excepting us three, Rayleigh and the bartender that seemed to be such a good friend with Rayleigh. All of us three nodded and sat town on some stools that were near Rayleigh, and started paying attention to the story that he was telling us right now.

It took the old man some time to explain everything to us. He had assured that it was everything, but I could sense that there were still one or two things that weren't completely explained then. Details that had been purposely missed, but I knew t hat if Rayleigh had missed something it was because it wasn't needed right now. He seemed like he was an intelligent man, and he also seemed to know what he was talking about here. It all seemed too surreal, too old and too fantastic to be true, and yet the three of us knew that it was true.

"So that spirit then created the prophecy and blocked that man from entering again that other world?" Sanji asked

"Yes" Rayleigh then answered. He had managed to cover all the basics of what had led to that prophecy to appear and to the current problem.

"And what is the prophecy?" I then asked

Rayleigh smiled. "The prophecy is what is guiding the steps of Blackbeard and his allies" He said "And it says as following: _'When the two halves meet each other the stars will die, and when night and day are reunited the path to the 'Land of God' will open to the chosen ones. The last and original plan will start, and the only way for it to be stopped is for the two halves, night and day, to suffer a great loss, that will stop this and change everything'_. This is the prophecy that was revealed by that spirit, and it tells how the path that world will open again, and what will happen and how to stop it" Rayleigh explained.

"What objects are Luffy and Ace recovering then?" Marco asked "And how can we help them?" He then finished asking

"What they are searching for are the objects that are 'night and day', whose position as told in the scripture that you recovered" Rayleigh said "They are currently getting the two cups that will open the path to the other world" He finished explaining.

"And what does it mean by 'the stars'?" I then asked the man. It had been bothering me since I had heard the prophecy. It couldn't mean that the stars would literally die, but something else instead.

"The stars represent other objects that will also need to be used to open the way to the other world, but they are out of our reach now" Rayleigh explained.

"And why?" Sanji asked.

I thought about the possible reasons as to why we could get them, and soon I realised why, and my eyes widened as understood, more or less, what Rayleigh had meant. "We didn't get those scriptures!" I muttered.

"Precisely, and Blackbeard got them instead. We won't be able to fins the rest of the 'stars', but this is not important, since we need to get those cups as soon as possible" Rayleigh said.

"We should go with Luffy and Ace to get them then as soon as possible then" I said, thinking that that would be the most reasonable thing to do.

"No; that won't be needed. The ones that must recover those two cups are ace and Luffy, and they are more than prepared to do that" Rayleigh said then.

"What shall we do then?" Marco asked Rayleigh

"You will have to do something else, and I will explain it to you as soon as the others arrive" Rayleigh said.

"The others?" I wondered aloud.

Suddenly, as if it had been magic, the door of the bar opened, and four other people stepped into the bar. The three of us turned around and looked at Nami, Usopp, the man that had once been told to guide us to where we would stay to sleep in that hiding place that now probably was destroyed whose name was apparently Vista according to Marco and another vampire from the 'Whitebeard Vampires'.

"I can start now to explain what is to be done now by you all if you want to stop Blackbeard" Rayleigh then said. We all looked at him with curiosity. Even the bartender whose name was Shakky was leaning in with interest."What we will have to do now is..." Rayleigh started saying, as we all nodded with interest.

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Luffy's POV:

I was surprised to see that a door that probably led to the outside appeared right after I had gotten hold of the cup. I hadn't expected it at all, but I probably should have, considering how this place had been. This corridor, unlike the one that we had gone through earlier, had many turns all over the place and was completely dark, and didn't allow even a vampire with heightened sense to see a thing in this place.

"Ace, can you see anything?" I asked the person that I had known all my life.

"No" he easily replied "This is completely dark" He then finished saying, with a groan, as he looked around himself, trying to find a source of light. It was after some time that we both gave up in finding a source of light and we decided to continue walking forwards using our other senses. I had tried to use the cup that we had just gotten our hands on as a source of light, but when I grabbed it, it soon became clear that it wasn't giving off that strange light and that it wouldn't give it off anytime soon.

We walked through the corridor, getting a fair idea of how it was with our other senses, but we were advancing very slowly, and this together with the sound of small and quick footsteps was unnerving both of us. The whole situation seemed to be surreal, and I couldn't help but wonder why exactly we had decided to go back through this passage instead than by the main entrance. That would have been a very good idea, since it felt like we would take longer to get out of here using this way than through the main entrance, and on top of that I had become thirsty with the fight, and I could feel what right now was only a dull sensation in my throat, but that was surely going to continue growing and growing until it made itself unbearable.

It seemed like hours had gone by until the moment that those quick and small footsteps seemed to be very near us, as if waiting for us in one of the turns. We turned left, and soon we both saw what the footsteps were made from. There was a very large group of creatures made of that same material that seemed to be like ice, and that were growing. They seemed to be a pack of wolves, only bigger, more ferocious and giving off light. The creatures starting growling at us as soon as they saw us, and it was then that we realised that we would have to get into another fight even though we had had to fight that gigantic dragon.

"Very well" I muttered, as I got into an aggressive position and ignored the pain in my throat as I got ready to fight, suddenly realising that our way towards the next temple would be a very long and dangerous one.

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Ace's POV:

I woke up with an enormous headache that was eating my insides and all ability to reason clearly, and inside a strange room that I didn't recognise. It took me some time to realise that I could be in very severe danger. We could have been captured!

I quickly sat up on the bed that I had been lying on, and it was only then that i started remembering everything that had happened. "Those creatures" I muttered as I remembered our encounter with the pack of creatures that had attacked us in the corridors and all the other vicious creatures that we had encountered from that point onwards, in increasing numbers. It was strange, since even when we were out again in the tundra the creatures came to attack us, drawn to us by something that had probably been the cup, and us being already weakened by the fight with the dragon had been forced to fight even more. This, of course, had ended up badly for us due to being weakened by the previous fight with that mythical creature and because of the fact that we had both been thirsty by then, which didn't contribute either. It had been when we had been outside of the temple, when we encountered a pack of creatures even larger and vicious than the ones before that we had started to be in problems. We were damaged by them several times by them, and when we were facing the two largest members of the pack Luffy was hit severely by the one that seemed to be the leader, and when this one went to attack my little brother again I had ended up moving between the creature and Luffy, to protect him from what surely was going to be a devastating blow. After that I had soon lost consciousness.

"What happened after that?" I muttered aloud, as I realised that all of my wounds were bandaged neatly. "And where am I?" I muttered aloud again, as I looked around the room that I was in, suddenly noticing then another bed with another body lying on it. The body of my little brother, that seemed to be sleeping peacefully even though the incredible quantity of bandages that he had on him. Just before I was about to stand up I heard someone talk behind me.

"He almost died, you know?" A sudden voice said.

I turned around and looked at the one that had said that, and soon found myself looking at an old woman, that was standing right in the middle of the door that led to this room. "What happened?" I then asked her, even though I didn't know her. "And who are you?" I then asked again.

"Apparently you were knocked out as you tried to defend him" She started saying "After that it seems that he managed to defeat whatever you were both fighting against and then managed somehow to bring you all the way to this town from that enormous tundra area up north, that is quite far away. By the time that he got here he was bloodied, with his clothes torn, many wounds and far too thirsty for it to be bearable and good for a vampire" The woman explained. I was surprised by the fact that she knew that Luffy was a vampire. How had she...? As if my face had given away my question the woman soon answered my question.

"I am Dr Kureha, and I have treated Luffy and his friend Zoro many times before. Last time was barely weeks ago, so I wasn't expecting him to end here so soon" She said. "Don't even bother presenting yourself. I already know who you are. Don't you dare either to get up too, or your own wounds could open, and those aren't too pretty either" She then said, as she turned around and left the room. I soon heard her telling someone named "Chopper" to give us medicines and to change our bandages.

Soon enough a small reindeer entered the room carrying a tray with different medical equipment, much to my surprise. "Who are you?" I asked the reindeer, not knowing what else to do.

"I am Chopper" He said with a smile, as he left the tray beside my bed. "Could you please sit? It would make all of this quicker" He then asked, with a polite and nervous tone of voice.

I did this and soon enough I noticed that my bandages were being changed and the reindeer was giving me the medicines that I would have to eat. "I am Ace" I then said.

"I know" the reindeer replied.

"How do you...?" I soon asked him, being interrupted by him before I could even finish my obvious question.

"I am a friend of Luffy, and I have treated him many times. I heard your name several times when he was wounded and dreaming something" the little reindeer answered.

"Oh" I said then, realising that they were probably hunters and wondering just bad had Luffy felt after he had thought that I was dead.

It was sometime after the reindeer had finished treating me and just as he was about to start treating Luffy that he spoke again. "You will heal faster if you're asleep" he said. I nodded, feeling very tired, and before I knew it I had fallen to a dreamless sleep.

I was only woken up much later, who knows at what hour, when I felt another body enter my bed and snuggle against my chest. I opened my eyes. "Who is...?" I started asking, stopping my question when I recognised Luffy as the person doing this. He had his eyes closed, but I could tell that he wasn't asleep.

"Please Ace, just for tonight. Being like this calms me" Luffy said, not waiting for an answer as he snuggled further against my chest, soon falling asleep. I smiled at this and soon I was doing the very same thing as I fell asleep too, feeling my heart beating fast even though it shouldn't even be doing this.


	25. Chapter 25

Her e is chapter 25! I hope that you like it! Thank you for all of the favs, reviews and alerts that you guys gave! I'm very happy that you liked this story so far.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

When I woke up I found myself lying in Ace's bed, snuggling against his chest. At first I was surprised by this, but soon this surprise disappeared as I remembered about last night and how I had ended up going to his bed to calm myself and get to sleep calmly. I smiled at this, and I remained in this position, enjoying being so close to Ace. I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep for the time being, suddenly noticing the touch of Ace's hand on my back, which pulled me closer to him. I closed my eyes and snuggled further against Ace, which caused him, who still was asleep, to hug me tighter. I grinned at this, and wondered if it was because of a dream that he was having, and suddenly wondering how Ace would react when he woke up, and chuckling at the mental imagine that I got.

Minutes turned into hours, and I soon was asleep again. When I woke up again I realized that Ace was no longer beside me, and that I was alone in the room now. "He probably went off somewhere with Dr Kureha" I thought, as I got up, feeling a bit of strain, and went back to my bed, lying down and staring at the white ceiling. My thoughts soon went back to the cup, and then to the strange things that had happened inside that temple, more specifically to how the light hadn't affected me and how it had affected Ace though. We were both vampire, so how…? As I started thinking about this I ended up recalling the story that that dragon, or old man, had told us. "So only one of the people who returned remained human, and this one was the best friend of the one that defended him against that other one that had wanted the stone for himself" I thought. "One cup was given to each one of them, and they were referred as the two 'halves'. Why are they called halves though?" I stared wondering.

I remembered the symbol that we had both seen at the entrance of the temple, and how it had been drawn as being divided. It seemed to have the same drawings as the half of the medallion that I had, and I had the part of it where the star and the cup that we had just gotten were depicted in. I had been able to stand that strange light that the temple was filled with, while Ace hadn't been able to. Why was this? One cup was given to each one of the two men, and only when the two halves were reunited and those 'stars' died the path to that other world would open itself, and only if this was done by the two chosen ones, that would be the ones to stop the final plan, that probably involved someone trying to get the stone and using it for evil aims. That someone surely had to be Blackbeard. It was reasonable to assume that one half was represented by the star and the cup that we had recovered that gave light. Stars gave off light, and so had the cup. The light that it had given out had reminded me of the sun's light, and a star was essentially like the sun, only further away, wasn't it? So then one half had to be...

"Day" I thought. "And if one half is day, the other half has to be the opposite, so it has to be night since it is the opposite, and the other half of the medallion and of that picture was a moon and a dark cup" I then muttered, happy that I had managed to get so far with this. It was then when I remembered what I had been initially been thinking about. I had managed to stand that light, while Ace hadn't. Vampires couldn't stand the light of the sun and of day, but I had managed to stand the light that that cup, that represented day, gave out. What did this mean? Was I special in some way? I supposed that no other vampires could stand that kind of light, but I had. Did that mean that I had something to do with that 'half'? Had I been 'chosen' in some way? As far as I remembered by the stories that my mother had sometimes told me when I was a kid there had been no vampires in our family before, and all members of our family had been hunters. All of them had been hunters, and very powerful and known ones too at that. The medallion, as far as I knew, hadn't been from my family before, and yet I felt like it represented and belonged to me. I still liked day even if I was a vampire, and I longed the feeling of the sun on my skin, without the burning of course. I had resisted that strange light in the temple, which represented one half of that whole prophecy. At first I had thought that the two halves were the halves of the medallion Ace and I had, but after what that man had told us... could it be that the halves, the chosen ones were humans and not just physical halves?

I groaned in pain as I felt a headache go through my very being. I didn't like it, and it seemed that it had appeared out of thinking too much about this, although I felt it was necessary. I felt like I was about to reach an important conclusion. I looked around the room, suddenly noticing that it was already night time again. I didn't feel pain in my throat, unlike all of the pain that I had felt when I had first arrived here, so there was no doubt that Dr Kureha had given me blood while she was treating me. I didn't like this thought, but at least I wouldn't have to have more in some time. It was minutes after I had started thinking about the prophecy and the 'halves' that a thought suddenly hit me. One that could explain why all of that had happened inside that temple: "What if I was one of the 'halves'?" I then thought. My eyes widened at this, and as all of the things started to make sense. If this was true all the unanswered questions related to me would be answered, all of them.

I returned to thinking about the whole thing once again, but soon I found that I was far too tired for that now and that I would probably reach no new conclusions or get more answers due to that and the lack of other information that would be essential for it all to be figured out. Of course I wasn't good at figuring out these kind of things in the first place, and that was another severe drawback on me. I groaned, annoyed, as I closed my eyes, feeling sleepy again. I wondered when we would start going to the other temple. After that thought I fell asleep again, this time dreaming about all of those years ago when I was still a kid and Sabo was still around.

When I woke up I felt as if a tremendous amount of time had passed. I sat and looked around the room, this time finding Ace asleep on his bed. I looked around the room, not managing exactly to guess what time of the day it was and how much time had passed since I had last been awake. I then noticed again the bandages that had covered my whole chest area and some parts of my arms, but that now were only covering certain and not so large areas of my arms and chest. I grinned. I seemed that I had recovered quite quickly, or so it seemed at least. I was ready now to get going with our mission, and I knew that in this state Dr Kureha would offer no resistance for me going away, and probably for Ace too. I grinned at this thought, and soon my eyes landed on Ace, that seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

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Marco's POV:

What we would have to do was simple. It wasn't either spying the government or going to help Luffy and Ace, but instead locating the area where the portal to that other world would appear, or was hidden at, and then preparing a defence for that place, since the government wouldn't doubt in attacking it to try and stop us. That was why we had divided all of us into two groups: One that researched about the place where that was at and another one that had to inform the members of the Whitebeard Vampires and the hunters of the imminent battle between our groups and the government, that would be together with the other vampire groups that had been 'absorbed' by Blackbeard. It would be difficult, but if we all worked together as allies we would surely defeat them, and I was sure about that. However this would be no easy task, since we would not only have to defeat the strongest people from the government, but also strong ex-members of the other vampire groups and that now collaborated with the government and also the so called "Sichibukai" that were infamous for being some of the strongest people around. Yes, it was going to be a very difficult fight, but that was why we had to coordinate everything now, so we were ready.

I had been placed in the group that had to do the research about the location of the place, which had been quite surprising, considering that I was the second in command of the Whitebeard Vampires and that I would have been quite suitable for the job of calling the other members. However Rayleigh had told me that I would be more suitable for the job of finding where the place was located. Right now I was sitting around a table that was covered with all kinds of papers and documents at Rayleigh's house. Around the table were many other people, both hunters and members of the Whitebeard Vampires, and even some that weren't members of either of the groups. Some of the people were the very Rayleigh, Ben Beckman, the famous best friend of Shanks, that knew quite a lot about this, several other hunters and vampires and then the famous Nico Robin, that knew quite a lot of history and how to read ancient writing. We were quite a strange group, but we had managed to combine all our efforts and it seemed that we were advancing with the investigation faster than what we all expected for such a tricky and old matter, where information was very hard to find and in most cases completely made up.

We had been hours like this, sitting in front of the table discussing all of the information when a vampire that had been guarding the outside of the house barged in.

"B-boss!" He shouted, as he fell on his knees. His face revealed him to be extremely nervous and even terrorised.

"What is it?" Rayleigh answered the man.

"T-the government!" The man then shouted, stuttering several times while he said it.

"The government?" I asked aloud. I hadn't expected this. Were they going to attack us? Why?

"A-an admiral is coming! It's-" the man started saying, but didn't manage to finish, as soon the door that led to the house was opened, revealing a tired Aokiji.

I had never seen the man before. There were many tales told about him, none too good, but he was famous for his strength and loyalty to the government. He surely was very strong, and it would be difficult and lightly dangerous to fight him. However he seemed to be alone, and quite tired too. He was breathing heavily, and I could see some red spots on his government uniform.

"Aokiji" Rayleigh then stated with a serious tone of voice. "What do you want here?" He then asked.

I looked at the other side of the table and saw that Rayleigh and Ben Beckman were prepared to attack the man if he tried anything strange. Ben Beckman was aiming at the admiral with his gun. I then looked again at the admiral and also got into an aggressive stance.

"Put those away, I don't come to fight you" Aokiji then said.

"Then why?" I then asked him.

Aokiji then was silent for several seconds, not saying anything at all. "It's Blackbeard" He then started saying. "He is planning something, and I have a feeling that it isn't something too good. The man is using the government, and will betray it at any time he finds it reasonable, and I have found proof of this. However I am the only one that sees a threat in him" He then explained.

I was shocked by this. I had imagined Blackbeard being completely loyal to the government now, or them having a steady alliance, but it seemed like it wasn't like this after all.

"Why are you here then?" Rayleigh then said "You could have controlled the situation from inside the government, couldn't you?" Ben Beckman then said.

"I wish I could, but Blackbeard has slowly taken over the key parts of the government, and most believe him, including my superiors and the other admirals. Only a few believe me, and these are willing to help me stop whatever he is planning, but we won't be able to do this in our own" Aokiji then said.

Rayleigh then signalled Aokiji to enter, believing the man. I maintained a cautious attitude to the man that had been my enemy for so long, but I didn't think that what he had said had to be false. Aokiji then sat down, right in front of Rayleigh and Ben Beckman, and stared at them.

"What is Blackbeard planning?" Rayleigh then asked. It was the question that we all were wondering.

"Blackbeard wants to use that stone in that other world for his own wishes, but mainly he wants this: To destroy his world and recreate it as he wishes, him being the supreme ruler" Aokiji then said, shocking all of us.


	26. Chapter 26

Here is chapter 26! I hope that you like it! Well, I must say that this was quite hard to write, but it was enjoyable though. This is not the chapter that I like the most, but well. I hope that you enjoy it! Thank you all for all of the reviews, alerts and favs! I'm glad that you all like this story!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Blackbeard's POV:

I grinned as I walked through the snow, knowing well where I wanted to go. I had been here before, many times, but I had never managed to enter the place before yet, at least not the zone that I was interested in entering. Not I could enter the place that I was interested in going into. I remembered it well, even though I had entered a time longer than what I could remember and when I was only human, before everything had happened. I knew that I would not be able to proceed with my plans yet, not everything was ready yet, and they had not completed what they had to complete yet. I didn't even need any information gathered with spies; I would know when it would happen. Right now I was only interested in preparing everything to make the plan flow smoothly when the time came. The prophecy stated that that time would come, no matter how much people would try to avoid it, and I had to be prepared for it so that everything would go on like I wanted.

I had seen it in their eyes so long ago. I remembered when I came back to this place, about eight entries ago, and after my visit, which had been a complete disaster, I had found by chance laying on the snow a golden medallion. At first it hadn't made me very interested, but it was only after a closer inspection of it I had found that it was very familiar. It had taken me some time to recognise what it was, since it had been a very long time since I had last seen it and it had been eroded a bit due to the time that it had passed in this world; however I still managed to remember what it was. It was that object that had been given to each one of those two men that had fought against me _there_. It was what was given to them as a present, and as a symbol of those two that had stopped me that time, as a gift, and also as one of the things that would open the way to that place again. It was one of those 'stars', only more important than the others, and yet it was lying carelessly on the snow. In that moment I couldn't help but wonder what in hell's name it was doing there. It was supposed to be missing, just like the families that it had once belonged to and that had been divided so much because of its influence.

I only got my answer some time later, when I met a kid that as soon as had seen the medallion in my hands had demanded it from me. I was intrigued by this kid, that seemed to have had this thing, and that yet didn't seem to know anything about its use or about its origin. This kid, that had seemed to be about seventeen, stared at me with no fear in his eyes, and it was this what remembered me of that person that had stared into my very dark and rotten soul in the exact same way all of that forgotten time ago. I immediately recognised his face. I knew that he was too young to have taken part in that, but his physical appearance, although younger than that man when it had all happened, was the same. Exactly the same as it had been and like I remembered, and this scared me. Could it be that this kid was the descendant of...? That was one of the two that the prophecy spoke of? I had soon found this to be true, and I knew it was like this, since this he seemed to have something different for being a human. Yes. It was him. I had faced an enormous dilemma then. What could I have done? The kid was a problem in my plans, a very big problem. Could I have kidnapped him and made him my follower? That would probably not happen, considering whom he was and who he descended for, and that stare that he had given me showed that he had no fear of me or of attacking me. It then occurred to me. I could kill him then and there, since he didn't seem to be too strong.

I was about to do that, ignoring the shouts that the boy gave as he called for someone that who knew who was, when I was rudely interrupted by probably the one that the boy had been calling for, and was thrown back by a punch with massive force. Before I knew it the boy and the other one, that had a strange aura around him that I could not place, were escaping from me. And I didn't like this. Not. One. Bit. I soon was though right on front of both of them, and I could see the boy that had just saved the other realise what I was, probably because of my speed and the two fangs that were lightly visible as I spoke. I had soon changed the mind of the boy from escaping to trying to attack me, and in no time I was drinking his blood with the intention of killing him. I couldn't see his face clearly, because of the lighting at that moment, and I could not taste anything weird in his blood. It hadn't been until much later that I realised my error. I had done a very big error in biting that kid and drinking his blood, one that I would never be able to mend. It was ironic, in a sense. Once the body of the boy fell limp onto the ground I turned around and went towards the other boy, who had tried to escape because of a petition of the other one in his last moments. By then he had shouted the other boy's name desperately, and as soon as I was in front of him he glared at me again, and demanded to know what I had done to the other kid. I soon replied that I had killed him, and then I had thrown him towards a nearby tree, that I soon pinned him against.

It was then that I wondered what I should do to this boy. He was glaring at me with pure hate, in a way that only one that had witnessed something horrible done to a loved one could do. It was then that I decided that I would better taint this boy. I would turn him into what he, by ancestry, never should have become. He was supposed to be _his_ descendant, and turning him into a vampire would be fun, and would not only give me some entertainment, but also alter the way things were and give me time, and also hinder him and hurt him far more that what I would be able to do than the pain of death would. Yes. He would have to live with the loss of a person that was a very loved one, and as a creature that I knew that he would despise. I bit him, and then forced him to take my blood, and then, mocking him, gave him back his half of that important medallion, mocking him, and made turned him into a path of revenge. I had gained great pleasure from this, as he reminded me so much of that man, the man that had destroyed all of my plans and wishes so long ago.

It had been a lot of time later when I had realised my error. I didn't mind as much the fact that the kid was a vampire, but by turning him I had given him time to get to know everything, get stronger and possibly more opportunities of becoming a potential danger to me, like he was destined to, and of potentially stopping me. However he wasn't the main part of my error. The other boy... the boy that I hadn't recognised due to the light at that time and because of my own carelessness, the boy that I had later discovered to be a descendant of that other one that had also destroyed my plans so long ago. The boy that I had accidentally turned into what all of his ancestors had been and into what he should be. I had made a terrible mistake back then, and there was no way that I would be able to change that right now.

Now, I could just ensure my victory, and to do this I had been forced to pact with the ignorant fools of the government, and I knew that one of the three admirals had realised what my plans were, and that I was just using them, and now was on his way to where the Whitebeard Vampires and the Hunters were. Despite all of these things that were a danger to me I knew that I would manage to get what I wanted this time, and as a proof of this I was now standing in the place where everything had happened all of that time ago and near where I had made that terrible mistake. I had the four stars with me, that in reality were just more simple versions of the medallion that would instantly react when everything was ready. I would get what I wanted, and they wouldn't even know that they were just helping me to finish my plans. I felt a cruel smirk appear on my face, and then I couldn't contain my laughter more.

"Zehahahahaha!" I laughed, as I positioned everything on its rightful place. Yes. I would get that stone this time and finish my plans this time, and no one, not even the chosen ones, would manage to stop me.

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Ace's POV:

It was night time, and we were walking through a deserted field. It was night time already, almost dawn, and we had been walking all day towards our next destination, that was also quite far away, as it was expected. It would take us several days to reach that place, and we would have to go through the extremely hot desert, which would be no easy task and would take its time. We would reach the other temple in a few days, and I hoped that there wouldn't be any delays, that wouldn't be very helpful. Right now we were walking relatively close to a village, and they seemed to be celebrating something, but I wasn't sure of what it was. I was walking right in front of Luffy, and we were both in silence. I was staring at the darkness ahead, deciding where to continue walking through. I was tired, and I knew that Luffy probably was too. We had had blood not too long ago, from a human, and it had taken a lot of convincing before Luffy had accepting to drink any blood. He had been more silent these last days, as if he had realised something that he didn't want to reveal or that was quite an uncomfortable truth. It had created quite an uncomfortable silence that unnerved me and that I didn't like. Luffy was always talking and laughing out loud. Hell, him being silent was something very rare, so what had he realised?

We continued walking for quite a long time, and it was when it was already night time when Luffy and I decided to stop to rest something. We were exhausted from all of the walking with no stopping, and the heat of the region, that was nothing compared to what we would have to go through, was making us become tired quicker than usual. In a few hours it would be dawn, and that was why we searched for somewhere that was covered so that we could rest without any worries of being exposed to the sun or to any unwanted eyes.

We soon found a cave that was quite well hidden on the base of a mountain quite near a forest. We entered it and soon Luffy was lying on the ground. I sat down and lay against one of the rocky walls of the cave, not feeling any wish to sleep at that moment. We remained like that for several seconds, in silence, both probably lost in our own thoughts. Mine concerning Luffy, and Luffy's about who knows what. It was minutes later than Luffy finally spoke.

"Fireworks!" He said, with an excited tone of voice, as he rushed out of the cave. It took me several moments to react, and when I did it was due to Luffy calling my name so that I knew that fireworks were being launched from the village, due to whatever that they were celebrating. I lazily went towards where we had entered the cave, that wasn't too far away, and soon I saw Luffy looking at the fireworks, obviously happy. I looked at the sky, slowly becoming adjusted to the bright light that they gave out.

"Aren't they pretty?" I heard Luffy ask in a way that reminded me of the time where we were both kids and loved these kind of things. It brought back many memories.

I nodded, not really knowing what to answer, and then sat down of the floor and the lying on the ground so I could see the fireworks better. Soon Luffy did the same thing, and then we were both lying beside the other as we stared at the sky with grins on our faces.

We remained like that until the firework display ended, which only was a few minutes later. After that happened we both remained lying on the ground like that, not really wanting to move. I saw that Luffy closed his eyes, probably in deep thought. "Luffy?" I said.

"Yes?" The younger one then said.

"What are you thinking about?" I then asked him, out of pure curiosity and concern.

Luffy remained silent for several seconds, as if debating whether he should tell me what he had been thinking about all of this time. Several minutes passed until he finally started talking again, during which the only sound that could be heard was the chirping of the crickets. I didn't look at him during this time, and instead continued looking at the sky.

"I realised something" Luffy then started saying, but stopping suddenly.

"What do you mean?" I then asked him, turning around and looking at him. He was staring at the sky in a relaxed way and still quite visibly in deep thought.

Luffy remained silent for several seconds more, until he suddenly closed his eyes. "It is about that cup, and what happened inside that temple" He started saying "About that picture, the prophecy and about the strange light that did affect you but didn't affect me" He then started saying.

He remained silent for several seconds more, during which I was silent too, waiting for him to continue.

He suddenly then turned around and looked into my eyes. "It is only an idea, but..." He then continued saying.

I continued looking into his eyes, reading the emotions that appeared in his eyes. Was he... scared? What had he realised? "What is it? You can trust me Luffy" I then said.

Luffy then breathed in and out several times, before suddenly moving so that he was very close to me and that he could whisper into my ear. I felt my heart start beating fast again when he did that, and a slight pang of nervousness invading me.

"I've realised that I... due to several reasons that include my family, the reactions that we both had then and several other things that I am..." He said, stopping for a moment before finishing what he wanted to say "that I am one of the 'halves', or the 'chosen ones' that the prophecy speaks about. I am probably a descendant of that person that was given the cup of 'day', and that returned as a human to this world" He then said, still whispering as silently as possible into my ear.

I was shocked by this, but after thinking about it for several times it did seem to make sense. "It makes sense" I then said, as I realised that what he was saying was probably true. It was surprising, very surprising. I would have never expected this, even though I knew that Luffy was the son of...

"You hate me, don't you?" he suddenly said then, as he started moving further away from me.

I was shocked when he said this. How did this relate to anything? I did not get why I would hate him just for... "Don't be stupid Luffy, why would I hate you?" I asked the younger one, as I grabbed him from his back and then pulled him into a tight hug, feeling his now too fast beating heart. I saw him opening his mouth to reply something, but I did not let him say anything else, and I continued talking instead. "I would never hate you, no matter what you are Luffy" I said. "In fact, it's quite the opposite" I then said, as I lost control over my actions, and then pulled him even closer, stopping him from saying anything at all by covering his lips with mine. He blushed furiously and stared at me in shock as I leant more into the kiss and closed my eyes, and soon felt him doing the same thing.

Time passed, and before I knew it he had fallen asleep on top of my chest, not saying anything at all after the kiss was broken. I soon fell too into sleep, not managing to stay awake.


	27. Chapter 27

Here is chapter 27! I hope that you like it! At first I didn't know what to do it about, but well, I guess that it did come out well in the end, even if it is more of a 'transition' chapter. Well, things will get very interested from now on! You'll see! ^_^ I can't help but feels ad by the fact that I am so near the end. I still have at least material for ten more chapters, but it makes me sad to think that this will be over relatively soon. Well, thanks to everyone for all of the favs, alerts and reviews on last chapter! I'm glad that you liked the chapter (I did too ;D) and the story so far. Well, onwards with the story!

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Zoro's POV:

We had finally discovered where the temple where that 'portal' that would take to that other world was going to be located, where Luffy and Ace would have to go to stop Blackbeard, I guess because they had been the most decent people for the role and probably the ones that had the most chances of defeating Blackbeard. We had finally managed to find what we wanted after some exhausting research of who knows how many ancient texts and of many discussing, and it had been the collaboration of everyone that had made this achievement possible. Aokiji had taken a key part in it too, and without him we wouldn't have possibly been able to find the location of that place. I had been surprised by how much he had helped and how much he knew, and I hadn't completely trusted him, but without him we wouldn't have managed to do all of this. It was interesting that the government knew so many things that we didn't, and yet that they didn't know what we knew, which had been the cause of neither groups finding where that temple was. I still didn't trust Aokiji completely, but I had to admit that I was less suspicious of him now, since he had helped us a lot after all, and he also had told us quite a lot of important information that we had to know. He had told us that even though the members of the government didn't know where that place was he was sure that Blackbeard already knew where it was, and that the other officials soon would know too where it was located.

I couldn't help but wonder how that guy, Blackbeard knew so much. Sure, he could have learnt it all of this after learning about the prophecy and then by doing some research just like we had, but this still didn't seem like a plausible explanation. It had to be something else. Him learning all of this didn't seem like the most likely thing, and even though some of the people that I had been working with for the past days did think that this was likely it was very clear that Aokiji, Rayleigh, Ben Beckman and others that had known about that prophecy for quite a long time didn't share this view. Aokiji had admitted that there wasn't any government information about where and when Blackbeard, Marshall D. Teach, had been born, but that it was suspected that it had been very long ago, long before the time that the government information and investigators could reach. All vampires had this sort of information about them, all of them, and yet Blackbeard had none about him. Sure, he could have erased all of it, but it was equally likely that he didn't have any in the first place. And this brought me to the next questions: Why? Why was this? How could this be possible, and what did this show about Blackbeard? Who was he in reality? All of these probably important questions were in my head, repeating over and over again and preventing me from concentrating on anything else, which wasn't too good, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to answer them right now, but maybe with luck later.

"Oi marimo! Pay attention and don't fall asleep so fast!" I suddenly heard the voice of a blonde that I knew all to well shout at me.

I looked at him, with a sleepy face I guess, ready to answer him. "Shut up Ero-Cook!" I immediately answered, which caused the other man to glare at me. I did the same thing, and you could almost see sparks between us.

"What did you call me?" He shouted, while getting into an aggressive position..

"You heard me!" I replied, while my hands gripped one of the three swords that I always carried with me.

I could have sworn that the fight between us was imminent, but soon it was stopped by a red haired female that I had known for a long time and to which I owed far too much money due to god knows what reason.

"Stop it you two, this won't help us in any way" Nami soon said with a commanding and quite scary voice that would have made anyone have chills of fear go up their spine

"Of course Nami-Chwan!" Sanji immediately replied, as two _hearts_ popped out of his eyes and he started moving around in a way that reminded me of a _squid_.

I groaned, annoyed by the reaction of the vampire and then sat down on a chair, trying to pay attention to the conversation that was going on but soon finding myself thinking about Blackbeard again. Who was he? I felt that that was quite an important question that would have a lot of importance when the time came, and yet I wouldn't be able to figure it out. I suddenly popped out of my thoughts, god knows why, and started paying attention to the discussion going on. Yes, we had discovered where that temple was, but we still had to decide our course of action now.

"We should continue learning more about the current situation and inform the rest of the people!" A vampire shouted.

"That would be suicide! Blackbeard already knows of this and won't hesitate to take over the place!" A hunter then shouted back.

The discussion then went back and forth for several minutes, until Rayleigh decided to intervene, soon backed up and followed by Aokiji.

"Blackbeard knows without a doubt about the location of that place, and I wouldn't be surprised if he has already taken a course of action about it" Rayleigh said.

Aokiji nodded. "Yes, Blackbeard already knows of this, and he won't hesitate in trying to destroy us with the help of the government. It is important that we don't let him have any advantages!" He then added. I looked at him, agreeing with what he had said. Blackbeard was a very dangerous person, and it was important that we ensured that we wouldn't be able to win or continue with his plan. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Ben Beckman, whom I had only seen a couple of times, nodding at this. It was clear that the three of them agreed with each other in the course of action to take right now.

"What can we do then?" I heard one of the vampires that had been debating before ask.

"I think that we should defend that place to make sure that Luffy and Ace can complete without problems their mission and put an end to all of this" Ben Beckman then said.

"And send one person to inform them both of the location of that place" Rayleigh then added.

We all nodded. "Okay" I then said. "Who will that person be?" I then asked.

The three of them looked at me. "You would be a very suitable candidate, but we need very strong fighters here to organise the resistance to the attack of the government, controlled by Blackbeard that will surely and unavoidably come. That is why we think that Marco will be the one that will have to go to where Ace and Luffy will be to inform them of the location of this place and then come back with them to help us fight the government" Rayleight easily replied.

"Are you okay with this, Marco?" Ben Beckman then asked the blonde vampire that had been so close to Whitebeard.

"Yes" he said. "I will go immediately then to do that" He said, as he got up from the chair that he had been sitting on for who knows how much time.

Rayleigh then got up and went towards him, and handed him a paper with something written on it. "Here is written the name of the place that they will be at right now, or where they will be soon. You have to go here and then come back. It will be better if no government agents spot you, this must be in the most absolute secret" Rayleigh said to him. The blonde man nodded and then left the room.

We were silent for quite some time, until Rayleigh spoke again. "Now we must only decide how to structure the resistance to defend that place" He said, having all of our full attention.

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Ace's POV:

It had taken us quite an amount of time to reach the desert where the temple was located, and even more to reach the temple where that cup was located. We didn't know the desert at all, since we had never been here before and it wasn't the first place where a vampire would like to be at, and the fact that the desert seemed to change all of the time due to the strong winds that usually could be found didn't help at all, that was why we had somehow managed to find a person that had accepted to guide us towards the temple. She didn't seem to mind the fact that we were both vampires, and I could tell by the easiness with which she talked to us that she was quite used to dealing with vampires. Her name was Vivi, and she had quite a friendly and easy going nature, which had soon made us consider her a friend. Right now we were walking through the desert as fast as we could during the hot and scorching day that exhausted us very quickly and made us quite uncomfortable. I had been forced to wear my long cloak again, something that I didn't appreciate, to avoid any part of my skin coming in contact with the sun. As soon as night came I was very quick to take it off, even though it was usually freezing cold. I hated wearing that thing. Luffy however didn't seem to be bothered at all by the sun or the fact that he had to wear the thick and heavy cloak that he wore most of the time, and instead seemed to be bothered by the heat that surrounded us all of the time instead, and a strange longing for feeling the heat of the sun on his skin. This didn't surprise me though, as I had learnt this during the time that I had been with him.

We had faced in the desert countless of dangerous creatures due to our own carelessness and lack of knowledge and Vivi forgetting to tell us about the 'dangers of the desert', as she called it, and how to avoid them. This had led her to apologizing to us quite a number of times for forgetting about this, that or the other, which was quite amusing since nothing seemed to happen to us no matter what kind of creature faced us. Once, when Luffy had run off when a shade created by some rocks was spotted by Vivi, he had ended up encountering a gigantic lizard and its mate that due to trying to eat him and then us had ended up very badly and used as food for several days. It was a sad destiny, but it was amusing how things kept popping out of nowhere to try and attack and eat us and later ended up being usually eaten by us.

We had drank barely any blood at all since we had entered the desert, and I could tell that it had been even longer for Luffy, that somehow always managed to avoid talking about these things and doing them. He would always say that he was find, but the state in which he talked, moved and in which his body was usually gave him away. Even though I had learnt that he was in fact a master at not drinking anything for long periods of time and not losing the control of his body and still managing to be more or less as he was after drinking blood. He even managed to control quite well when his eyes turned black and to stand the pain that assaulted the throat of any hungry vampire, but there was a limit even for him that made it clear that he was starving, and it was during times like these, that weren't very common, during which I forced him to drink some blood. It had happened only once during our travel here, and only once again when we were in the desert. I had realised that it had been a week since he had last drank, and I couldn't help but be impressed at the amount of self control that he had.

Most vampires could not stand drinking once or even twice per day, and very few managed to last three or four days without drinking. This also applied to me, and it was why I usually had reserved some blood so that I could continue feeding myself. Eating meat calmed me a bit, but it was not enough though. However Luffy managed to last a lot of time without blood, and it was as if he had trained himself for this. I knew that he was disgusted by having to drink it, and that he hadn't become used to it yet, as if he didn't want to. It had been only yesterday that I, out of lack of any other blood, had forced him to drink from my very own, and he had soon offered his very own to me too, maybe to compensate me or just as an unconscious reaction. I again couldn't help but remember the taste of his blood, who knows why, and to touch the place marked with two barely visible circles where he had first once drank from my blood all of those days ago when we had encountered Rayleigh. The most recent mark had immediately been cured, and I couldn't help but wonder why the first mark could still be seen. I had made a mental note to ask Marco about it as soon as I saw him again.

After I had... kissed him things hadn't been as awkward as I had at first expected them to be. I had thought that he would instantly reject me and then slap or punch me, anything. However he hadn't done any of these things, and instead he had leant into the kiss, as if he accepted and welcomed it. I hadn't dared to ask him about the whole deal later, and I knew that Luffy wouldn't dare to say a thing about what he had felt, done and his reasons for it until he was questioned about it. He acted like it had never happened, or as if it had only been a dream, but I could tell by the strange feeling that I had inside and by the way that he touched his lips every now and then that it had been real, and that he hadn't precisely hated it, but instead liked it. I knew him very well, and I knew that he did feel like this, just by seeing his reactions. However I could still feel a twinge of fear of rejection that wouldn't go away until I heard him say what he felt. And it didn't seem like I would ask him about it anytime soon, so my guess was that this was going to happen in quite some time.

Days had passed quickly while we travelled through the desert, even though of the harsh conditions that we had to endure. Vivi had quickly become a friend to both of us, and even though the great quantity of dangerous animals that we had encountered the travel thorugh the desert had been quite a nice one while it had lasted, since we had unavoidably reached the temple that we would have to get the other cup from.

"Here it is" Vivi said, as soon as she spotted the building in ruins.

"Yes" I sais. "Thanks you for the help Vivi" I soon told the young human female.

She smiled. "I hope we meet again" She then said as she turned around."Have luck with whatever you are planning to do here" She then added, before she started walking again.

"We will meet soon Vivi!" Luffy then shouted with one of his infamous grins on his face.

Vivi smiled back at us, said that she would be waiting for that, and then continued her way back to the city, together with that bird that she always was with.


	28. Chapter 28

Here is chapter 28! I am not too proud of it, but I don't hate it either, but I hope you like it! Thank you all for all of the favs, alerts and reviews so far! You guys rock! ^_^ Well, onwards with the story!

Disclaimer: I donk't own One Piece, Oda owns it. I do however own the plot and idea of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

We had finally arrived to the location where we knew that the temple was, but unlike we had expected at first it wasn't as well conserved as the other temple and instead of remaining like a solid building it was broken down and just a pile of ruins with only a few walls standing on their place. It had also been confusing at first, since it had made us wonder on how to proceed and what to do now. We had expected this temple to be in a good state, similar to the state that the other temple was in. It was depressing in a sense, but soon we started searching for some kind of secret entrance that led to the inside of this temple. We knew that what we were looking for had to be here, and that was why we almost immediately started searching for that entrance that would lead as to it. It wasn't easy, since most of the ruins were covered with sand, and this included a great part of several of the walls that still managed to stand. This forced us to dig on several parts quite deep holes to ensure that we could check everything. We had decided that this would be quicker if each one of us checked different parts of the ruins

I had been looking around for not too long, since most of the time that I had been 'looking' for the entrance I had been thinking about several thoughts that kept going around my head in vicious circles. Ace's words, who I was, Blackbeard… many things went through my head and I didn't know what to do about this. I was trying hard to recompose myself from the things that had been such an impact to me but that would have been something obvious or laughable to many other people. I could almost hear Zoro's voice telling me to concentrate and do something useful with this, since it was needed to stop the plans of the vampire that I despised so much. I sat down on top of a rock that seemed to have been part of a very well decorated wall inside the temple that was now destroyed. Some of its colours could still be seen, but most of the pictures that it used to have on it were almost gone, eroded by the sand from the desert and the extreme conditions.

I looked at the picture that was still barely visible, recognising two figures that seemed human, but not managing to notice anything else. I then touched the rock, searching for some kind of switch of some kind that would lead us to where the cup was hidden, but again finding nothing. I got up and walked around for some more time, and finally gave up on finding anything many minutes later. I sat down and leant against another wall that was almost completely destroyed, and it was only then that I noticed a very small picture inscribed into the rock the same one that we had seen in that first temple. I gently touched, and soon it started glowing. A loud mechanical sound was heard, and before I knew it there was an enormous set of stairs descending into the sand right beside me.

"Luffy! You found it!" Ace shouted as he came towards me after hearing the loud sound that had been heard very few moments ago.

I grinned, amused by the enormous amount of luck that I just had had.

"We better get going then" Ace muttered, as he eyed the stairs with suspicion. "It has to be this" He then said as he started descending the stairs. I soon followed him into the corridors surrounded by darkness where we would supposedly find that other cup.

I soon found out that the corridors of this temple were very dimly lit, unlike the ones of the other one, and as we walked through them we were almost constantly surrounded by a darkness that always seemed to come from directly in front of us. The sources of light were on the walls of the corridors, and it almost seemed that most of the light that the 'lamps' where producing was being absorbed by that strange darkness. It felt oppressive, and it was giving me a very bad and strange feeling. I didn't like it. I had a sensation that wasn't entirely like the one that I got when the sun touched my skin. It wasn't that burning sensation, but it did seem to be a very similar one. It felt like my whole being was being absorbed by that darkness that oppressed and also seemed to damage me in a sense. A freezing sensation was now on my skin, with no doubt because of that darkness. I didn't like this place one bit, and I could almost feel the light that was given out by the cup that we had managed to get who knows how much time ago 'fighting' the darkness. At least it seemed like this.

I looked at Ace, and then I noticed that he was completely at ease with this atmosphere and was clearly comfortable in it, completely the opposite of how I felt right now. It was like what had happened on the other temple, but completely inversed. It was like a cruel joke from destiny, and I guessed that I felt uncomfortable because of what I was, and Ace and any other vampire would have been comfortable in this place. We were slowly walking through the narrow corridors of this place, searching for where the other cup would be at. It was hard to distinguish what was in front of me, at least for me, and we were both walking quite slowly thorough this place, to make sure that we didn't miss anything. I was constantly closing and opening my eyes, not feeling at ease in this place and trying to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling that I was getting and to concentrate on what I had to do right now.

"You have to concentrate of finding the cup! Don't get distracted!" I could hear a voice in my head almost shout. I couldn't concentrate on this a single bit, due to the way this place was and the thoughts that were still going around again and again in vicious circles.

I managed to concentrate a bit for some moments, and I looked with wonder and the pictures and inscriptions that could be seen more or less on the walls of this place. Ace and I were both silent, but it was a comfortable silence and it wasn't too bothering for either of us. Things had been surprisingly normal these days, even after what had happened. I had caught myself touching my lips several times, as if trying to remember the feeling of Ace's on mine, but as soon as I had noticed this I had stopped myself from doing it anymore, at least in that moment. I hoped that Ace hadn't noticed me doing this, since I hadn't told him anything about how _that_ had felt and what I thought of it, and I had instead acted as if it hadn't happened at all, but I knew that both Ace and I knew that it had been real, and it was precisely that what bothered me so much and had caused this thought to be stuck inside my head most of the time.

I had been feeling like this for some time. I liked spending time with Ace, and I knew that I had felt in the exact same way even when I was a human and that happened. I knew the way that my heart used to beat during those times when I was with him, and I knew that even if dead and frozen it still was like that. It had taken a long time for me to admit these... feelings... to myself back then, and even though 810 years had passed, probably a bit more, I knew that I still wasn't ready to admit aloud these feelings, and even less to him. I tried to forget it. I had tried to forget these feelings several times, and the feeling of his lips on mine too now, but it was completely impossible, and the worse thing was that I knew that it was impossible, and that I would end up telling him how I felt with time, probably not too long seeing how things were right now. I was glad that things hadn't been awkward since _that_, since I didn't want things to change or Ace to get the wrong conclusions.

"Luffy?" I suddenly heard Ace say, as the bubble of thoughts that I was in suddenly burst when I finally realised that Ace had been saying something to me.

"Yes?" I replied, not having a clue about what he had been saying earlier.

"Are you okay Lu? You seem to be quite distracted" Ace said, while he looked at me with concern on his eyes.

I smiled in an assuring way, trying to easily transmit to him that I was feeling okay. "Yes, I'm just thinking about several things and the atmosphere of this place is making me feel weird" I replied.

Ace looked at me for several more seconds with still evident concern on his eyes. "Okay, but I'm here to help you if you need anything" he immediately said with a soothing smile.

I smiled at him, with a strange surge of happiness created by his concern about me. "Thank you" I immediately then added, before we both continued walking.

As I walked I tried again to remain concentrated in finding the cup that we needed, but I failed miserably again, and soon I was deep in thoughts again, completely disconnected from the real world. This time I was thinking about Blackbeard, more specifically about what he had done 810 years ago. I couldn't help but wonder if he had planned on turning me into a vampire and Ace too, and if it was like this then if we were currently just acting like little helpless pawns in his chess game. Were we being used? Did he already know that we were going to get both cups and then go to fight him? This thought worried me, since I knew that Blackbeard was famous for planning every single thing that he did and every single one of the steps to take to complete his interests. I was sure that he already knew who I really was and I didn't see any other reason for sparing me then and not killing me, and making me thirst for revenge for killing my brother. Yes. He had had to know it, and this worried me. If he had known that at that time when not even I or anyone else knew about that then how much did he know now? And more importantly, would he harm again those people important to me so that he could get his wishes? Would Ace be in danger of death because of me? Was I at fault for the wounds that he had received after we had recovered that first cup?

"Yes" I thought, as I continued walking. It had been my fault. I knew it. And I had a feeling that a very bad thing would happen soon, and I didn't want Ace to be harmed because of me. He was too important to me to see him have to go through that just because of me. He shouldn't have to go through horrible things and risk death because of me. He was my brother, and it was my duty to protect him, whether by blood or not, we had declared each other brothers together with Sabo all of those years ago, and I had to protect him from being damaged or from death. We had both suffered too much these years thinking the other was death, and with all that had happened recently I knew that it would be too much if he or I had to go through the same thing once again, and I would never be able to forgive myself if he suffered fatal damage to protect me. Yes. I wouldn't be able to stand it, and that was precisely why I would have to protect him from damage being done to him. I was his brother. I loved him. I had to protect and help him, just like he had done with me so many times recently. I would have to protect him from the monster that Blackbeard was, and I was determined to do so. Besides that Blackbeard had told _me_ to seek revenge, and it had been my fault that all of that had happened all of those years ago. If only I hadn't run away to look for my half of the medallion then and had waited some more time to recover it then none of these horrible things would have happened, none of them. This was why I had to stop Blackbeard's plan on my own, since I was the most involved one with it, and he had also said that he would be waiting for me to get my revenge, and not to anyone else. It had been the reason why he had left me alive after all, so I, who was one of the ones described in the prophecy, defeated him. Nobody would die for me. Not again.

I went back to reality when I finally noticed a very large door in front of me and Ace. It was made out of very well conserved wood, and it clearly was the source of this strange atmosphere and 'darkness'. I looked at Ace as he took a step forwards and opened the door slowly, slowly revealing a small section of the massive room where the cup was located at without a doubt. We both then took some steps forward and entered the massive room, that like the rest of this place was barely lit, since all of the light produced by the 'lamps' that were placed on the walls seemed to be 'absorbed' by the darkness generated by the cup that was placed on the middle of the room on top of a pedestal that reminded me of the one that we had seen at the other temple. I also couldn't look at the cup too much without my eyes feeling irritated, something that again reminded me of how I felt when I looked at the sun or on a very clear day. I then noticed that there seemed to be someone near that pedestal and was staring intently at the cup on top of it.

I took another step into the room, decided on what I would do and how to do it. Yes. I would protect Ace no matter what.


	29. Chapter 29

Here is chapter 29! I hope you like it! Thanks to everyone for all of the reviews, favs and alerts! I'm glad that you like this fanfic! Well, I finally managed to write down this scene (the last part) I had wanted to write it for a very long time ^^ On a further note, in case you are wondering who the man that I describe is, he is "Golden Lion Shiki".

Disclaimer: Like always I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Ace's POV:

I was surprised by how deep in thought Luffy was. It hadn't and still wasn't something common for him, and him being in deep thought usually meant that nothing good was about to happen. Yes. Luffy and deep thinking was bound to create a disaster, and there was no questioning to be done there. I wondered what he was thinking about, but I seriously doubted that he would notice me speaking right now. Last time I had spoken to him I had had to repeat five times my question with an increasingly loud tone of voice. What was Luffy thinking about now?

We soon arrived to a door that had to lead to the room where the cup had to be at. It was a massive and old looking door. I opened it quite slowly, since it was quite heavy after all, and then I entered the room, soon followed by Luffy, who now seemed to have decided something and was paying attention to his surroundings, at least for now. The room was dimly lit by several torches that were hanging on the walls. The light that they emitted seemed to be absorbed by the cup that was on the middle, which was surrounded by a strange 'darkness'. I felt quite comfortable inside this room, and it made me feel quite relaxed, completely opposite to how I had felt inside the other temple. It was a massive contradiction, and I had first assumed that it was because I was a vampire and vampires naturally preferred darkness to light, but the fact that Luffy didn't feel comfortable inside this place was quite interesting too, and I wondered why this was like this. I would think of it later, since right now we had to concentrate on getting the cup.

As soon as we entered the enormous room we both felt the warm temperature that was inside it, probably due to the location of the temple. It was still bearable, and thankfully not as bad as the desert's temperature had been. I looked around the room once I was inside, and then I realised that unlike the other temple there was nothing inside this room. It was strange, but I couldn't help but think that we had been incredibly lucky this time, at least for now. We both made our way towards the other cup, but as soon as we were close enough to get it a powerful voice was heard throughout all of the massive room.

"So _you_ are the sons of the 'revolutionary hunter' and of the 'king of the vampires'. Interesting" The voice said.

I turned around, feeling quite annoyed. This always had to be difficult, had it? It just couldn't be like a stroll on a park. I looked around the room, searching for the person that had talked, but it was Luffy who somehow found him first.

"Who are you?" Luffy asked.

I didn't say anything, and stared at the man. He had long and unruly blonde hair, seemed to be quite tall, was smoking and had... wait, did he have _swords_ where his feet should be? And what did he have on his head? Who was he?

"Someone that knew both of your parents and has been waiting here a very long time" He simply answered, as he slowly walked towards us, making a distinctive sound with the swords as he moved.

I looked at Luffy, who had seemed to accept this answer but clearly was still wondering who the man was. I was surprised by the fact that he knew who our fathers were, since barely any people knew that.

The man spoke again once he was right beside us, staring at the cup in the centre of the room. Both Luffy and I were silent, waiting for the man to speak. It was quite an uncomfortable silence too, but the man didn't seem to notice this. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" He said, in a manner that suggested that he didn't want or expect that question to be answered.

"Not really" I heard Luffy answer.

The man turned around and stared at him. "Of course you would think that" He immediately replied, with a half mocking and a half amused tone of voice. "You are unable to appreciate the beauty of this object here" He then added some moments later "You aren't linked to it after all, it represents something else entirely, that because of history you aren't able to appreciate as the ones linked to this cup" He then finished saying, as he went back to staring at the cup.

"What do you mean?" I then asked the man, unsure of what he meant. Luffy didn't bother answering the man.

The man chuckled. "You must know about the prophecy and about what happened then" He said.

"We do" I easily answered.

"This cup was given to the one that defended the one that lost his spirit" He said "It represents the spirit of that man, and his whole nature, heart and feelings. It is the opposite of the other cup, and the atmosphere in this place and how it is demonstrates that" He said.

"How do you know that?" I heard Luffy asked. Could this man be one of the ones that had seen that event happen so much time ago?

"Simple study, just like many others did" He easily replied. "I didn't see the whole thing happen, and it is probably better like that. I am a vampire though, and I do have some blood of the original ones, just like that Roger did; only he had more of it than I did. I'm glad that I'm not like that old man that just sat there on that other temple" He then said, with a mocking tone of voice at the end. He clearly didn't like that other man, who knows why.

I couldn't help but wonder what he was doing here then. Did he want that cup for himself? But if he did want this then why was it still here? I decided to ignore these questions and just go forth and try to get that cup. I was about to reach it when the man spoke again.

"Are you sure that you want that cup?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked the man then, unsure of what he meant.

"Are you sure you want the responsibility that that cup gives?" He then asked again.

"We need the cup to stop Blackbeard!" Luffy quickly shouted at the man, which made the man groan, clearly annoyed and then mutter something along the lines of 'That is why I hate people of his kind'.

"Do you want the responsibility that that cup gives?" he then asked again, completely ignoring Luffy.

"It doesn't matter why I want it. We need it to do what we have to do" I then replied, not sure of what to answer. What did he mean? I could tell that he knew something that we were both still unsure of. What was it?

The man chuckled at my response. "Just like I imagined" He then said, while a grin formed on his face. "So typical" He then added again, as he got into a fighting stance.

Luffy and I soon got into a similar stance, prepared for whatever attacks that the man decided to do. "Why do you want the cup?" I then asked him. It was clear that he wanted it, but because of some reason he hadn't gotten it yet, and I could only wonder why.

"I want it because of where it leads. I want what it protects, but I can't get it yet. I am not the one that the cup will work with, and I first have to destroy that person to get it" He then said, just before he went forward with the intention of attacking us.

"Luffy!" I thought very nervously after the man had said this, thinking that the man had meant that he wanted to kill Luffy to get the cup.

I rushed towards the man, with the intention of protecting my brother, and soon I blocked his attack, with a grin on my face. "You won't manage to do that" I then said.

The man chuckled at what I had just done. "You still know nothing" He then said, as he prepared to attack again. This attack never came, as Luffy soon punched the man with brutal force, causing him to be thrown back into a wall, which he then crashed against, doing a at an incredible speed with absolute perfection a deadly hunter technique. I then saw him grabbing his dagger and his gun, both of which were deadly to any vampire.

I looked at Luffy, surprised. So much was revealed in his eyes: His wish to protect the cup from him, to destroy Blackbeard and above all to protect me. The last one was the thought that surprised me the most.

"This isn't your fight, you mean nothing in here!" The man shouted very angrily to Luffy, who continued glaring at him.

"It is" Luffy simply answered, as he changed from a defensive position to an aggressive one.

"Just like him, both physically and mentally" The man then said, with disgust in his voice. "It's funny that you're a vampire though" He then said, right before he launched himself at Luffy and me.

Luffy ignored this, and before I knew it they were both fighting each other at an incredible speed, causing each other tremendous wounds. I noticed the man getting hold of something very similar to a sword, before he started attacking Luffy with it. Their rhythm was frenetic, and they were both receiving multiple wounds. I sighed, annoyed, at the fact that I had been left out. I wouldn't let that man harm Luffy anymore.

Soon Luffy and I had teamed up against the man, and the results of this were soon seen. The man stopped attacking us, and instead had to start to defend himself from a sure death caused by our perfect team. The fight after that point only lasted several minutes more, and after that the man was completely defeated, and then thrown away and into another room due to him being launched towards the roof by Luffy and I and breaking through it. I saw Luffy grin out of the corner of my eye, satisfied with the result and by the defeat of the man.

"He was annoying" Luffy then said, as he turned around and looked at me.

I could only nod as I stared at my brother's face, quite happy myself. I was glad that nothing bad had happened to him. Sure, he had some cuts, but they would heal in no time. The same went for the few cuts that I had received too.

"We should get the cup now" I then said, soon receiving a nod from Luffy. I then walked towards the cup that I felt so at ease with, unlike the other one. I couldn't help but to keep thinking about what that man had said. '_You still know nothing'_ I heard mentally, as his words replayed themselves over and over again inside my head. What had he meant? What was that thing that I still didn't know? My thoughts were disturbed when I felt myself grab the cup, and soon I saw all the light disappear from the room, absorbed by that strange darkness that emanated from the cup. Brief moments later the darkness had all disappeared, and the cup was clearly visible, just like it's pictures, that were exactly the same as the ones that we had seen on that image inside the other temple.

I grinned, happy that we would at last be able to go and stop Blackbeard's plans. I saw an equal grin on Luffy's face, showing that he was happy that we had managed to get the cup at last, but I could sense a darker undertone under it. It was almost as if he was worried about something.

Soon a mechanical click was heard, and another passage opened, revealing the exit of this temple. We went towards it and soon we were at the desert once again, this time not having to go through any other fights, unlike all the fights that we had had to go through at the other temple.

-.-. hours later.-.-.-

We were sitting down on the cold sand of the desert, around a fire that we had just made in an improvised camp that we had decided to do to pass this night. We were both quite comfortable right now, and we were talking to each other quite animatedly, just like we had done countless of times before. However even though of all of the laughing that we did and how we were talking to each other happily I could still sense that darker undertone inside Luffy. What was it? What was he thinking? I started wondering about this, and didn't notice Luffy as he stopped talking as I did the same. An uncomfortable silence was created, and it was only minutes later that it was broken by Luffy.

"Ace" He said, visibly nervous, catching attention.

"What is it, Lu?" I asked him, wondering what he wanted to say.

I looked at my brother as he got up from where he had been sitting on and then lie beside me, on top of the cold sand of the desert as he stared at the stars. I could see a strange look on his face as he did this, but I waited for him to continue talking.

"Ace, do you remember that night?" He asked.

I thought about his question for several minutes, and realised then that he was referring to that night 810 years ago, during which our lives had been turned upside down. "Yes" I quickly answered.

Luffy remained silent for several more seconds. "I thought you died after that" he started saying, which caused a pang of guilty to go through my whole being. "And I am very glad that you are alive and not... dead. You are so important to me that I can't imagine how bad it would be if you were dead, if you were to die again" He then said.

I remained silent, feeling guilty and curious at the same time. What was he trying to say?

"Ace" He then said again, as he then got up and stared at my eyes. I did the same, waiting for him to continue, and seeing the fear that was hidden inside his eyes and the determination that was inside them as well. "The other day... You helped me so much, and you have always done that. You have saved me countless times before, and I would like to do the same thing for you right now. I wouldn't stand it if you were to die because of what I am" He said, clearly referring to the fact that he was one of the ones referred to in the prophecy. I gulped as I suddenly saw Luffy leaning closer to me, more specifically towards my ear. He then opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to say something but not finding the correct words."What I mean is..." he then started saying with a barely audible whisper "Ace, I love you" He suddenly said. I forgot how to breathe then, and I felt a powerful wave of heat rush to my face. "I love you" He then repeated again with more conviction, if possible. "And it is because of this that I will protect you now, even if it costs me my life" He then added. "I'm sorry" he then said, just as he touched several places of my neck. I felt myself suddenly fall more and more asleep, and the last thing that I remembered was feeling Luffy's lips against mine, followed by another 'sorry'.

I woke up after what seemed to be hours later. It was day time, and I was completely covered by my thick cloak, that I had been wearing during the whole time that we had been travelling through the desert. Right in front of me was a familiar man with blonde spiky hair, who was clearly worried and had been the one that had waken me up. I looked around me, wondering t first what the hell had happened.

"Ace, what happened?" The blonde man, Marco, then asked.

I remained silent as I thought about the event of last night. We had gotten the cup, and then... and then... "Luffy!" I shouted, suddenly getting onto my feet.

"What happened Ace? Where is Luffy and the cups?" marco thenasked.

I breathed in and out several times as I processed inside my mind all of what had happened last night. The fight, how strange Luffy had been, his confession and then... "He went away. Luffy went away" I soon said, feeling myself breaking down inside.


	30. Chapter 30

Here is chapter thirty! I'm impressed that I have managed to write thirty chapters for this and have so many things happen! I hope you like this chapter! I really liked writing it, especially the last part *grins* Well, thanks for all of the reviews, alerts and favs!

Disclaimer: Like always I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

I had done it. I had managed to do it even though that it had seemed so impossible to do then. I had told Ace everything. I had told him what I wanted to do and why, and I had told him my true feelings for him. I had seen his face of surprise and... happiness, and yet I couldn't help but to feel guilty for doing this. Leaving him like that, even though he was strong and perfectly capable of defending himself, but I couldn't help but get this crushing feeling of fault and of worry for him.

"Ace" I muttered then, as my thoughts went back to all of the happy moments that we had passed together all the weeks that I had been with him. I shook my head, trying to get rid of all of these thoughts and to concentrate on what I wanted to do. "It's not like you're never going to see him again, you'll soon be back with him" I told to myself mentally, trying in vain to get all of the different worries that were assaulting my head out of there so that I could at least concentrate. I knew that this would be no easy task, and that I could even die. But if this was to protect Ace I was willing to pay the price. I was willing to pay any price to protect him from anything, and I knew that this was true. Anything, even if this meant having to have him hate me for eternity, if this meant that he would be okay and alive that was enough for me. It was enough and it would always be like that. And I knew that there was no way of changing this. However I couldn't still concentrate on anything as I wandered through the desert in the direction hat I felt that was right. I could feel both cups drawing me towards the place where it would all happen. Yes. I could feel it, that and also a strange feeling inside me that was telling me to go forwards and defeat the man that had ruined so many lives.

I had recently noticed something strange on my hand. It was a mark equal to the one that was on my half of my medallion, which was now near the other half that I had also gotten from Ace back then. It was quite strange since it was as bright as the very light that came down from the sun, and I supposed that it had appeared after getting the first cup, but it had taken me quite some time to realise it. It was on the back of my hand, and it was of a medium size, not too bit or too small. It was very shiny and bright, and yet at the same time hard to notice, even for me.

Right now I was walking through the desert. It was night time once again, and I was barely conscious of the fact that I had been walking nonstop for several days already, not stopping to rest or drink anything. I could feel a starving sensation on my throat that was screaming me to stop, rest and above all to feed myself. It was a desperate cry from the monster inside me for our survival, but I was determined to ignore this. As of now I could control myself perfectly, and I knew that I would be able to last quite a long time before bad things started happening. I knew that my eyes still had their usual silver colour, and I could feel that it would be like that for quite some time, until I started losing control slowly. I had decided that I wouldn't have any blood until all of this had finished. I refused to give in to these impure instincts. I simply refused. I wouldn't lose against this beast. I refused to let this happen. I knew that I would be able to last quite long without having any blood, I was an expert at that after all, and I wasn't called an "anorexic" vampire for nothing. Yes. I would resist that.

I wasn't paying attention to any of my surroundings. I simply didn't care. Not about the temperature, the time of the day or the location. I was just blindly going towards the place where I felt that everything would happen, trapped inside the thoughts that I was trying to stop in vain. I guessed that I was much like a zombie right now, just walking ahead and paying no attention to pain or to anything else that I felt, only concentrated on the events that would happen after now and on my now beating heart. It made me feel human, my feelings for him, and even though it was something far too strange I welcomed this surge of humanity that had invaded me. I liked it, and I didn't want to lose my heart or this feeling. I wouldn't let it disappear. I liked the humanity that I had, even though it was like an illusion that covered the creature that I really was and that I had never truly managed to accept. Zoro had accepted what he was a lot easier and faster than I, and it should be the exact opposite seeing what he had to go through, and yet he seemed more comfortable with this than me with my nature. In a sense I was still a human: A human trapped inside the body of an immortal blood sucking demon, and considering what I was and how my ancestry was it was no surprise that I felt like this, although I refused o believe that it was all just because of genetics, and was instead because of how I was in reality.

Days passed, and soon I lost all sense of reality. I just walked unconsciously, guided by the objects and my instinct, thinking all the time. I no longer paid attention even to what I saw and I had forgotten or decided to ignore massively what I was, the other living beings around me, and basic things such as drinking or feeding and any physical sensation. I was walking aimlessly, even more than before, at first through that desert and even when I finally made it out of the desert this continued, only getting worse with the pass of hours as I walked through numerous human villages and towns, forgetting about everything. There were only two thoughts in my head, repeating themselves over and over again: Blackbeard and Ace. Both seemed to be fighting for dominance, trying to occupy my mind a hundred percent, but not managing to achieve any of this.

Before I knew it I arrived to the location of the place where it all would happen. By then I could feel that my eyes soon would start going back and forth between black and silver soon. I was vaguely aware of the two massive camps that were situated right in front of the place where apparently the passage to that other world would open. I walked right through both camps, ignoring all of the people that looked at me or tried to talk to be, familiar or not, only focused on the building in ruins that was in front of me. It was summer right now, but I could still recognise it. This place... This place... This place had been right where it all had happened all of those years ago. Yes. It was definitely that place. It was that same church in ruins where I had first seen Blackbeard, and I swore that the trees still looked as frozen and as dead as they looked 810 years ago.

All of this brought me a strange sense of nostalgia, that hurt me deep down and that made me remember all of the memories of that time, especially the one of that fateful event. It was then, out of the blue, when I heard a voice inside my head say a phrase that I remembered very well and that almost sent shivers down my spine, reviving some sort of terrorising childish fear from that time. _'That vampire is going to kill us...' _ I heard the voice say, in an exaggerated childish manner, just in the way that my seven year old version would have said it. It repeated itself several times as I made my way to the broken down church in the distance, managing to send shivers down my spine several times.

Once I was there I soon found an inscription that was just like the one that had been seen in both temples. I touched it, and soon it glowed with a bright white light. Soon enough a passage opened, and I entered it without any hesitation, not hearing the people that were behind me, that were the friends that I appreciated so much or noticing the other two people that were slowly arriving in the distance.

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Ace's POV:

I didn't know what to think after I woke up, realised and tried to come to terms with what had happened. I had been awfully silent, and I knew that Marco knew what I was thinking about and probably had a fairly good idea of how I felt. We had known each other for such a long time after all, we were like family. I felt happy and glad that Luffy had the same feelings for me as the ones that I had for him, and I couldn't get a strange bubbly feeling out of me due to this, but another part of me felt very worried. Luffy had gone away to protect me, but I didn't like this fact. I was the 'big brother'! It should be _me_ protecting him, not the other way round. This had hurt my pride a little, while made me feel some sort of strange happiness inside too. Right now I was thinking about what could happen. Luffy was going to fight Blackbeard, and I was sure that even he knew how difficult that would be. I feared for what could happen to Luffy. Sure, he was very strong, but assuring this wasn't enough for me. It simply wasn't. And then there was the other thought that was occupying my mind quite a lot.

That man that we had both met in this last temple... he had told me that I still didn't know everything, but what was he referring to? I knew that knew well all of what had happened that first time people had entered that other world, so then what was he referring to? I couldn't stop thinking about this and about all of the strange things that had happened during our travel to both temples. The strange things that had happened to both of us inside them and the effects of the places on us, that had been completely opposite. I remained like this, in deep thought, for quite an amount of time, until I noticed a strange mark on the back of my hand that I hadn't noticed earlier. It had the shape of a moon, and it was of a dark colour. It reminded me of how this second cup had been, with that strange darkness around it. This was exactly the same, and its shape was exactly the same too as the one that was on my half of my medallion, that now Luffy had. It was then when realisation hit me. All of the strange things that had happened, just like they indicated who Luffy was, also indicated who I was. This realisation must have been very obvious; Marco soon was asking me what I had discovered. He had told me that we would be going now to the place where we would have to stop Blackbeard, and I was determined to get there and help Luffy, it wasn't like I was going to leave him alone. However this fact changed everything and it just made me even more determined to get to that place to fight and defend Luffy from Blackbeard and to defeat the man.

"What did you realise, Ace?" I heard Marco ask.

I remained silent for some time, until I managed to speak. "I am, I am..."I saying. I felt Marco's look on me as he waited me to finish saying what I had discovered. "I am the other half. I am the other chosen one" I said, as I looked at the mark on the back of my hand again.

Marco stared at me, and I soon started explaining how I had discovered this. "We have to get there even faster then!" He said, only adding afterwards a question that wouldn't be answered. "I wonder if Rayleigh knew this all along" He then said.

Time passed, and it was after some minutes that Marco noticed certain two marks that were on my neck. His eyes widened and he soon was touching the mark, with curiosity and surprise.

"Ace, are these biting marks?" He asked

I looked at him with an annoyed face. "Yes they are! Stop touching me like that!" I answered.

"Biting marks of... another vampire?" He then asked me, as he looked at me with eyes that didn't promise anything good and an amused, surprise and... teasing look on his face and eyes.

"From what else would they be?" I immediately replied, not feeling too good about all of this.

A huge grin then appeared on Marco's face, a huge _teasing_ grin that didn't promise anything good at all. I was almost scared by this "Ace, do you know what that means?" He then asked me, with that grin still on his face.

I stared at him, wondering where he wanted to end with all of this. "No" I quickly replied.

This only seemed to make Marco's grin increase. "Well, the meaning of those kind of bite marks on a vampire, caused by another vampire is..." He said, soon starting to explain everything. As he did this I felt a blush creep to my face. A blush that ended up making me look like a tomato as realisation hit me too. How could I have forgotten this? Did Luffy know? Was Marco serious?

"B-but Luffy has them too" I heard myself mutter in a low tone of voice, that was loud enough for Marco to hear.

He grinned at this. "Well, isn't that good for you then Ace" He easily added, with that huge teasing grin on his face again. Oh god, he was never going to stop teasing me for this. Never.


	31. Chapter 31

Here is chapter 31! It is also a bit later than usual, so please forgive me! I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for all of the reviews, alerts and favs! I'm glad that you all like this story! ^_^ Well, inside here there is also a quite lame try at a skull joke, so please bear with that! ._."

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

I entered the passage as soon as it opened, and then I walked right through it, paying close attention to my surroundings, well, as well as I could manage. It was well illuminated; just like that hiding place where we had met Whitebeard had been, nice but not too bothersome. Right now the passage just went forward, and it didn't seem like there were any other presences inside this place, although it was too soon to know. I came across some stairs, and descended them as quickly as I could, almost in a hurry. I wanted to get across this place as soon as possible, and to manage that I knew that it would be essential to move around this place quickly. I didn't know what to expect to appear right in front of me now and I didn't exactly feel like being cautious. I just hoped that there weren't any followers of Blackbeard or the government waiting for me here or things wouldn't go too well for me, since I had to save as much energy as possible for my future fight with Blackbeard.

Time passed, and soon I arrived to a medium sized room, that had a big inscription on one wall written on ancient language, that I couldn't understand. However there was a picture on its side, and it seemed to be some kind of map of this place. It seemed to be quite big, there were several passages in front of me, first what seemed to be a maze, a very big maze. Then there was a room with something drawn on it that looked like a lot of mirrors. After this there seemed to be a passage leading out of that room and this was cut by what seemed to be an abyss. After this there seemed to be some kind of altar, where I guessed that the path to that world would open. I breathed in and out, as I looked at the map and as I realised that there probably wouldn't be any other way to get closer to the 'altar' without having to go across those three rooms, that didn't seem like they were too nice.

I turned around, and I then went towards the passage inside this medium sized room that surely led to that 'labyrinth'. As soon as I was about to enter it I heard someone laugh behind me. It was quite a pleasant and happy laugh, and it didn't sound too evil, but it surprised me nonetheless.

"Yohohohoho! So you finally arrived!" I heard the voice say.

I turned around and looked towards the direction where the voice seemed to come from, and was quite surprised to find a skeleton standing right in front of me. I grinned at this. I had never seen someone that looked remotely like this. "Who are you? And what are you?" I asked the ma, not too sure about what he was.

"I am Brook, the one that will have to guide you to the altar, as it was stated many centuries ago" he easily said. "I am a vampire, but out of the way that I was transformed I ended up with this appearance" He then added, explaining his skeleton appearance. He then looked at me, as if expecting to see someone else. "But you are only one, where is the other one?" He said.

"I will be enough to protect all of this" I said "I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me" I soon replied.

"Okay, I will lead you to the altar then" He said.

"Do you know what is written there?" I asked Brook, before following him into the passage that led to the labyrinth.

"Oh! No! I never knew how to read these things, and I am not from the time when they were used. I was explained one though that this place has three different tests to ensure that not everyone will be able to get to the altar" he explained. "Please follow me" He then said, as he entered the passage that led to the labyrinth. I decided to follow him.

We soon arrived to the room that seemed to be the labyrinth, and I only knew of this because of Brook saying that we were there. As soon as I entered I just saw corridors just like the ones that we had been walking through right now, only many more and in countless directions. The walls reached until the roof, and it was impossible to see any other point of the labyrinth that was a few metres in front of you. It felt quite oppressive, and this place had a strange aura around it, as if it had seen many people get lost inside it.

"Will anything attack us here?" I asked Brook, wondering if there would be any fighting involved in this 'test'.

"Oh no, nothing will attack us inside this place. This test is all about finding the correct way out. Beware though, there have been many souls that have gotten lost inside here and have never found their way out. There are many lost souls trapped inside here that have never managed to find the way out so that they could rest in peace too" He then explained. "This place scares me out of my skin, but because I'm a skeleton I have no skin... Skull Joke! Yohohoho!" Brook suddenly said, making me almost fall onto the floor laughing at the joke that he had just said. It had come completely out of the blue, but I liked the humour nonetheless. It seemed like it had been quite an amount of time since I had last laughed, and that had taken its toll on me.

"Let's get out of this labyrinth now" I then said once we both had stopped laughing with a decided tone of voice, as I then looked at one direction and I started walking, soon followed by Brook.

I started walking through the first path that I saw right to my left, and soon I was changing of path every three seconds each time that I came across the many changes that were possible. Yes. This labyrinth seemed to be enormous, and I had no way of telling where I should go to get to the exit of this place. "Right, left, left, left, right, diagonal, in front, right, left..." I muttered to myself as we ran through all of the different corridors, trying to remember all of the directions and turns that I took and failing miserably at this. Soon enough we had turned far too many times to remember how to return to the original point, and we were completely lost inside this maze. It was when I was when I was running that I suddenly came across a point where many paths changed. It seemed familiar, but there were so many points where the paths changed that I did not know how to differentiate each part from each. This place was so confusing. However it soon was clear that we had somehow ended up at the starting point when we arrived to the room with the map of this place.

"Yohohohoho!" Brook laughed as he realised that we were at the starting point.

I laughed too, not believing my luck. We would have to do something if we wanted to find our way through the maze. We turned back and went back to the starting point of the maze, and it was then when I somehow had an idea of how to reach safely the end of the maze. On the floor there was a piece of chalk, that didn't seem to have been used before. I got hold of it, and it was then when I suddenly had an idea of what to do to not get lost inside here. I grinned as I turned around and quickly wrote on the wall of the entrance 'entrance' with big white letters on both sides of it. "What path Brook?" I asked the other man, not caring in what direction I started going in.

The skeleton laughed and then pointed in one direction, not caring too much himself the direction that we went through. I then went to that path and drew on both side of the wall an arrow pointing the direction that we were going with through this path, and then I started walking through it, taking some random turns and marking n each wall arrows that signalled the direction that I was going at and also marking with these arrows too the paths that I had already gone through. The marks were at the start and at the end of each path, and they all had the same shape and size.

I soon started running through this place, marking all of this at an incredible speed and somehow managing still to make sense of all of the marks. I turned around several times when I found a dead end, and marked this too on the wall, and before I even knew it I had reached the exit of this labyrinth. The labyrinth had had a strange aura around it, something that seemed dead and dangerous, and we had seen several skeletons lying on the floor and there was even a feeling of ghosts looking at us with jealousy as we successfully became closer and closer to the exit. Once we had managed to reach it I threw the piece of chalk to the floor and laughed hard and loud, glad that I had managed to pass the first test successfully. We then started walking forwards, and I decided to ask Brook what was the second test about, after all the picture hadn't revealed too much and I didn't know how to read ancient texts.

"Hey Brook, what does the second test consist of?" I asked the skeleton vampire as we finally reached a door that surely led to the room where the second test was at.

"It is a room full of mirrors that show you the deepest feelings and desires of your heart, however they all change and distort these and only one shows the true one. That one leads to the exit of this place. Many people have gone mad inside this room, and many others killed themselves when seeing the different mirrors and what they showed." He explained.

"Have you ever been here before?" I then asked him, curious.

"No. I was explained all of this when I was brought here" He then answered.

"Oh" I simply said as I decided to open the door. I opened it slowly, since it was quite heavy, and once it was open we both entered this place, the door soon closing behind us. I looked around me, and saw a room full of different mirrors, each with a different image.

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Ace's POV:

It was days until we finally reached the place where that other temple apparently was at. Luffy had surely already entered it, but it was now very well protected by the other army and it would be a difficult task to enter it avoiding any fights. I couldn't help but think what Luffy was doing right now. Was he okay? Had he fought too much? Was he having a hard time inside that temple with whatever that was inside it? I had thought about this a lot, but the thought that occupied my head the most had been what Marco had told me about the meaning of biting another vampire. Apparently it was the most extreme form of showing love for a vampire, the most extreme and pure. It was like a mark. A mark that showed that the person with the biting marks trusted the one that had made them to the extreme. Apparently only the first marks remained visible, impossible to erase, while the next ones always disappeared just like a normal would. It also symbolised the 'union', as Marco had put it, of the two different people that had done this. Vampires never shared their blood, and if they did it was for this, and this wasn't something common for vampires. This union was something comparable in meaning to what humans called 'marriage' and was charged with even heavier and deeper connotations. It was something almost sacred, sacred and pure, and as a sign of belonging to the other person. I wondered if Luffy knew this.

Of course Marco, being the person he was, hadn't let me live it down a single bit, and something told me that all my other friends would do the exact same thing. Oh the joy. We were now apparently going towards where Rayleigh was, inside the camp that was directly opposite to that of the government.

"Ace" I suddenly heard Marco say. I looked at the blonde man as he distracted me from my thoughts. "We arrived" he then said, as he pointed to a tent that was quite large. We walked towards it and entered it.

Inside the tent were Vista and many other people that I knew, hunters that I had seen sometimes before, Rayleigh and... Wasn't that one of the admirals, Aokiji? "What is he doing here?" I asked, as I looked at the man, surprised. How could he be here?

"He is now with us, don't worry Ace" Marco said.

I decided to trust the man and I soon followed Marco as he went towards the table where they were all sitting down.

"Rayleigh, we have a problem" Marcos aid suddenly, looking at the dark king.

"I noticed. Did Luffy away alone?" Rayleigh asked then.

"Yes" I answered "He had both cups with him and even my half of the medallion, he was determined to defeat Blackbeard on his own and protect us" I soon said.

"This isn't good news, but I already expected something like this happening" Rayleigh muttered, as he ran his fingers through his beard. "He discovered that he was one of th 'chosen ones' didn't he?" Rayleigh then asked again.

"Yes" I said.

"But he didn't know that you were the other half, did he?" He then asked again.

"No" I answered.

"Just like I expected" Rayleigh then muttered.

It was then when I realised that this lack of surprise by this fact could only mean one thing. "You knew this before and yet didn't tell us?" I asked the man, surprised. I was surprised by this, after all wasn't it a very important fact?

"It was necessary for you to realise on your own. The situation required it" Rayleigh then answered. "Ace, we need you to enter the place that Luffy just entered and go after him. You need to give him support. He will die on his own, no matter how strong he is" Rayleighthen said.

"But the place is now protected by the government" Someone stated.

"And that is why we will do this. Everyone come closer, this will be what we will do to" Rayleigh then said, as we all came closer to him to listen to what he was going to explain. I couldn't help but think of the striking similitude that this place had with where it all had happened such a long time ago, where we had accidentally met Blackbeard and he had almost killed us. It seemed to be the same place after all, and also to be quite near to where we used to live at when we were humans, or when Luffy was a human and I was just a dhampir.


	32. Chapter 32

Here is chapter 32! I hope that you really, really, really enjoy it! It was quite easy to write, but it seemed like I abbreviated some things too much, but oh well, I will see what to do about that (0nce you read it you'll understand what I mean). Well, I want to say that tomorrow I will be going to a summer camp for two weeks, and although I suppose that I will still be able to update the updates won't be as fast as they have been up until now (one per day), so please forgive me if they come a bit late! Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Ace's POV:

It was almost dawn, and we were all lined up, prepared for the battle that soon would come. We were on top of a hill surrounded and hidden inside the forest, and right in front of us was that abandoned and almost destroyed church where the path to that other world would be opened and the huge army of the government, composed by strong vampires and humans that had somehow ended up collaborating in this fight. They seemed ready to fight, and this would surely be a very fierce fight, with heavy losses for both sides. I was concentrated on the church, which was where I would have to go to as soon as I could. Many of the enemies would concentrate on killing me, but it was my mission to catch up to Luffy as soon as possible, no matter what. Things would end up very badly if I didn't do this.

On our side were some of the most notorious hunters, most of which had had this fame for a very long time and all of the commanders of the divisions of the Whitebeard Vampires. Marco had told me once we had arrived what had happened to Whitebeard and Shanks, and I was decided on making Blackbeard pay for doing what he had done. The man would pay for all of the evil things that he had done, and he wouldn't be able to stop that. No he wouldn't. On the government side there were the two admirals and even Sengoku, who had a Den Den Mushi near him for transmitting orders. Then there were the two admirals, Akainu and Kizaru, and then all of the different Vice admirals. On top of that several of the Shichibukai could be seen, but it was obvious that several were missing. Blackbeard was not there and neither was Gecko Moria, the famous Jimbei or Boa Hancock either, the famous Vampire Empress. Yes, this would be a very hard fight. I could only help but wonder what was happening to Luffy right now and if he was okay. I had a strange feeling about the missing Shichibukai. They had to be planning something, and this wasn't going to be any good. On the distance some followers of Blackbeard could be seen, what could be considered the so called 'Blackbeard Vampires' and that had a strange look on their face that didn't promise anything good.

"Ace, as soon as this starts I want you to go towards the church in ruins" I suddenly heard Rayleigh say, who was just beside me. The man had surprisingly agreed to battle, even though he had been 'out of scene' for so long.

"I know" I replied. He had explained to all of us earlier that we would all have to fight, but that the key aim that we had to achieve was to manage to allow me to enter the church in ruins. It was essential. We had all been divided in several groups, and I was to be escorted by Marco, Zoro, Sanji and Kid and Law, that were two other quite known hunters, to the church safely, and into it if it was possible. At first it had been planned for more commanders to assist me, but after seeing the scale that the battle would take I had told Rayleigh that it would be better to send more people to the main battle so that the government was defeated and that the way to the church was cleared for everyone.

We all waited in silence as the sun started to rise, and it was then it was completely visible when we started to run forwards, determined to defeat the army in front of us. The other men in front of us did the same thing, and in a few seconds both armies clashed, and soon the sound of battling and of death was heard, which was soon accompanied by the smell of blood, that seemed to arrive too soon for the liking of all the people present. I soon found myself surrounded by government agents and allies, and fighting with all my might besides the people that I had ended up knowing quite well and that I had just met.

"Fire fist, we have to keep going forward!" I heard the green haired swordsman shout at me as soon as we had been fighting for some minutes without advancing too much.

"I know!" I immediately replied, as I drew out one of my weapons, the one that was most similar to the one that pops had used, and defeated many of the men that were going towards me.

All of us were fighting as best as we could, and soon we were advancing nonstop towards the church, no one managing to stop our advance. I remained as concentrated as I could, but I soon found myself distracting a bit as my thoughts focused again and again on Luffy. I was worried for him, very worried. Even though I knew that he was strong, I didn't like the idea of him fighting along Blackbeard and whoever else came across him. I was at my full strength since I had managed to drink blood quite soon before the fight, and didn't have any problems in that sense, which was good. I wondered if Luffy had had any blood, which seemed unlikely considering what he thought about this, and I started to worry about his physical condition then.

The time we spent going towards the church seemed eternal. Every second seemed like a minute, and every minute like an hour. Government agents and vampires didn't stop coming at us, and it was getting increasingly annoying. The smell of blood was already thick in the air, and there were many sounds of agonizing people too, along with the screams of vampires going mad because of the irresistible and thick scent of blood. It was a tremendous combination of sounds and smells, that would make anyone retch with disgust. Quite a number of bodies could be seen lying on the floor, cut in half by who knows what person, and there were parts of bodies scattered everywhere too, which didn't help particularly either.

I jumped and hit with a strong punch the last government agent that was trying to stop us from getting closer to the church. He fell down onto the floor, unconscious, and then we started running towards the church with massive determination, only to find that there were two figures standing along in front of us, slashing the men that had decided to help us defeat some of the enemy vampires and government agents. From the corner of my eye I could see Ben Beckman fighting Kizaru in the middle of the battle, and I also managed to notice that famous Emporio Ivankov fighting Kuma.

"You won't be advancing anymore" Suddenly one of the figures in front of us said.

We all looked forward, and were surprised to see the world's best swordsman, Dracule Mihawk, and Donquixote Doflamingo. I frowned, not liking the sight of these two men here. It wasn't good. The chuckle of Dogflamingo could be clearly heard as we stopped dead on our tracks, and stared at the two men, who in turn did the same.

"We have to keep advancing" I muttered in a tone of voice that only Marco could hear.

"I know. We'll go forwards so that we can distract them and continue going on" he then said, low enough so that only we: Zoro, Sanji, Kid Law, himself and me could hear it. We all nodded. I then noticed on the distance the figures of several Pacifistas, slowly coming closer and closer to us. We all remained silent for several moments, not needing to speak to understand what we were going to do.

"Go!" I shouted, which made us instantly jump forward and over their heads as we blocked their almost instant attacks. We soon were on the other side, and we started running towards the church, soon finding that the two Shichibukai wouldn't give up on stopping us so easily and continued throwing deadly attacks at us.

"I'll stop him" I heard the green haired hunter say suddenly, as he turned around to face the infamous Hawk-Eyes Mihawk. "He will continue chasing us if we don't fight him, and you need to get there, Ace" He then added.

"Will you be okay?" I asked the werewolf that had ended up becoming quite a friend during the brief time that we had known each other.

He nodded, and before we knew it he and Mihawk quickly started attacking each other. I had heard several times that Zoro had once been defeated by Mihawk and had almost been killed, and that he wanted to become the best swordsman in the world for reasons that I didn't know, which was what pushed him to fight the man.

"I will fight the other one" I soon heard the vampire that had been with me for about a hundred years and that I had ended hp knowing so well say.

"Are you sure, Sanji?" I asked him.

"Just go forwards. We will meet soon" He said, before he started to fight Doflamingo.

I nodded, and soon the four of us that remained continued running forwards, knowing that our two friends would be victorious. We soon came across the army of pacifistas though, when we were quite close to the church in ruins, and it was here when Kid and Law said that they would stop them, and then ordered us to enter the ruins to stop Blackbeard and all of this. We both nodded, and we then went towards the ruins, not followed not by any other soldier.

When we reached the ruins I felt millions of memories from that time invade me as I looked around me. I could almost recognise the path that led to where Luffy and I used to live back then, which was now probably completely destroyed. Marco and I walked around the church, expecting to find something that showed where the entrance to the ruins was. I soon found it, in the shape of the symbol that I had seen several times until now, and that started glowing with a dark light when I touched it. "Diei et noctis aeternae" I muttered, suddenly understanding the true meaning of this phrase. "The eternal night and day" I then muttered again. Yes. It had so much meaning and it was so well disguised in the phrase. Soon a passage had opened right in front of us, and we entered it, hearing it close as soon as we were inside it. The corridor seemed to be quite well lit, but it wasn't a bothering light like the one that we had encountered inside that first temple.

Soon enough we both arrived to a medium sized room that had a massive picture along with some ancient writings beside it.

"What does it say?" Marco asked, knowing full well that I was capable of reading these things.

I was about to answer when I heard a voice behind us interrupt us. "Fire Fist Ace and Marco the Phoenix, I have been waiting for you" I heard the voice say.

We both turned around, shocked, and stared at the figure that also was inside the room

"Jimbei" We both said, "How come that you are here?" We then asked aloud, as we saw the famous fishman walking towards us.

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Luffy's POV:

I stared at the different mirrors. Each one had a different image on it. Some images were similar, while some were completely opposite. Many of these were awfully exaggerated, while the exact opposite happened to some others. These mirrors showed distorted dreams and desires of the heart, and only the mirror that showed the true one was the path that would lead to the third and final test.

"Brook, what happens if I chose a mirror that is the wrong 0ne?" I asked to the skeleton.

"You die" He immediately replied with a very dark and scary tone of voice that would have made shivers go through anyone's spine and body.

"Oh" I simply said as soon as the other man replied, staring now at the different mirrors.

I saw one that showed me eating a whole mountain of food, and I somehow could eat all the food that I wanted. The mirror was showing like an endless scene, almost like a movie, of me doing something that I had never done yet. I looked at it, and I the felt a bit of hunger for human food. I looked so happy in that mirror...

I shook my head. "My true desire" I muttered, as I started walking around the room, looking at all of the different mirrors. One showed me as a king, another one as a government agent, in another one I was dead, another one showed me as a god... there was almost an endless number of representations of me, and I could not help but feel attracted to some, and in another ones I could feel a wave of disgust go right through me. I then saw one in which I was torturing an innocent human and drinking all of their blood, only to then convert them into a vampire and making them suffer eternally. I was beside Blackbeard in this one, as if I was a loyal subordinate. I soon felt a wave of disgust and a feeling to retch go through me with a lot of strength, and I soon was holding my head with a dreamy like feeling as I tried to get rid of this horrible sensation and as I told me that this wasn't true. I looked around, and then I saw many other mirrors that showed equally horrible images. On one of them there was endless pool of blood in front of me, in another one I was murdering my friends and then eating them, laughing and torturing Zoro when he was at his weakest moment, abandoning my friends, betraying them, killing Ace, torturing him, betraying him... There were so many horrible images that I was barely able to hold myself together, and I suddenly understood why this room had made so many lose their minds and kill themselves. I continued walking around the room, looking at all representations on the mirrors and trying to find the true one, which wouldn't be too easy, because what was my true desire?


	33. Chapter 33

Here is chapter 33! I really liked writing it, it was entertaining. Well, I hope that you like it! I intended to upload last chapter last night, but the webpage didn't let me, so please forgive me for that. I also hadn't noticed that I didn't upload chapter 31 ._." Well, I hope you like this chapter, even though that it was descriptions that are a bit... graphic. Next chapter will be out with a lot of luck tomorrow, but expect it in two days time, since I'll be going to a summer camp, and although I will be having some free time I won't be able to write as frequently as have been during these past weeks. Well, onwards!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story

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Ace's POV:

I was surprised to see Jimbei, one of the Shichibukai, to be inside this place seemingly waiting for us. He didn't seem to want to fight us, since he hadn't attacked us yet and it didn't look like he would. He had a serious expression on his face, and had clearly been thinking hard about something.

"I'm not here to attack you, but quite the contrary" he started saying, which made Marco and I be quite surprised.

"Why then?" I heard the blonde ask the fishman.

He looked at us for several moments before answering us. "That Blackbeard's plan is pure evil, and I refuse to collaborate with him or the government if it means fighting against you and collaborate with him. He needs to be stopped, and the government won't do that" He said. "That is why I'm becoming an ally of you guys" he said.

Marco nodded. "I'm glad that we can count with you, Jimbei" He said, with a light grin on his face that was quite similar to the one that I also had on my face. Jimbei had collaborated with pops and us several times before, and he had been some sort of unofficial ally before, even though he was a Shichibukai. The last thing I had heard about him is that he had refused to take part in this fight and had been locked up because of that, but it was only a rumour. Apparently it was true, and he had managed to escape somehow from the infamous Impel Down.

I then went towards the large ancient text that I had noticed earlier and to the picture beside it. Marco, noticing this decided to repeat his earlier question.

"What does it say?" He asked.

I read it several times before replying. "It says that the altar is after three tests that will be done. The labyrinth of despair, the mirror of wishes and the bridge of faith" I said. "It says that only the ones that manage to pass these tests will be able to reach the altars and have an opportunity to get to that other world" I then finished saying, as I looked at the picture that seemed to be a map that was right beside me.

"Then that is a map of this place?" Marco said, as he looked at the map.

"Yes, it is saying the order of the three different tests" I quickly replied, suddenly turning around to look at Jimbei. "Jimbei, do you know anything about this?" I asked the fishman.

"Rumours, but the first tests has been said to make people get lost in it until the moment of their deaths, and the second one to make people mad and commit suicide. I haven't heard anything about the third one. No one has except the person that guards this place, and that isn't here" He said.

I nodded, thinking about what he had said. Was Luffy okay? How advanced was he? Had he reached yet the altar? "We better get going them" I said, as I looked at the corridor that led forwards and that was very near these writings. The other two nodded and we soon were walking through it and towards the labyrinth that we would have to pass to get to Luffy.

In a few minutes we had arrived to the entrance of the labyrinth. It was well illuminated, and it had tall walls that didn't allow to see any other parts of the labyrinth. It was a very clever idea, since there were many ways in which it was possible to go through. I was surprised because I had at first expected to see the walls without any drawings, like they had been before, but here the walls had several arrows drawn on them and at the entrance the words 'entrance' xould be seen on each side of the wall, along with a tally chart below them. What did this mean?

"Someone has already been here" Jimbei said.

"Luffy" I muttered, as I stared at the arrows. You couldn't see very far away because of the turns that many of the paths that could be seen right now had, that were very sudden and not too far away.

Marco touched the white words on the wall, to discover what it was made of. "It is chalk" He said then. "These are made with chalk" He then added.

I nodded, staring at all of the different paths and wondering where to go. The arrows seemed to point in different directions, and some of them pointed to this place, while some others pointed away. "What do we do now?" I then asked aloud, thinking about the arrows.

"We could follow them, maybe he left them there to not get lost in here" Marco answered then.

"Very well, which one do we follow first?" I then asked aloud, looking around. The other two did the same thing and soon enough we all pointed to one direction, that seemed to be the one that had had the arrow drawn on first.

Soon we learnt that this place was huge. There were many turns and different paths to go through, and it seemed logical that people had gotten so lost inside this place that they had died inside it. Their skeletons could still be seen, lying on the ground. There were many arrows, and they were on every single possible path. On some paths they pointed forwards, but then had another one that pointed in the opposite direction. It was soon clear that the arrows described how Luffy and the other person had been moving through he labyrinth, checking all of the possible paths to see if they cold discover where the only exit was. That was why there were so many, and this had probably taken an awful lot of time, and the same would happen to us even with the arrows. We were running through the labyrinth, turning again and again as we followed the arrows on the walls. We had been doing this for what seemed to be quite a long time, and it was already starting to bother me. This place was huge, and I wondered how long the labyrinth truly was. I was getting worried that we had ended up lost inside the labyrinth by going in a wrong direction, and the thought that Luffy also was lost also bothered me. We had ended up several times more at the entrance, exactly the same number that was shown on the tally chart that had been drawn on its walls

Minutes and hours seemed to pass, and we finally and somehow managed to get to the exit of this place, all thanks to the arrows that nearly acted like a guide to it. On the exit it could be seen that the words "exit" had been written, while on the floor a very used up piece of chalk could be seen, near the words that had been written.

"We finally got out of the labyrinth" I said, glad that I was out of that place. It had a strange atmosphere around it that had made the three of us feel uncomfortable inside it. It was an aura that made you feel like you were trapped inside the walls of the labyrinth, without any possible escape.

"They also managed to get out safely" I heard Marco mutter, as he stared at the piece of chalk. "I wonder if the piece of chalk was there already or of they brought it" He then wondered aloud. I thought about this, and realised that it was a good question. If it had already been here then who had left it there and why?

"We better continue, we don't have much time" I then said, as I started walking through the corridor that now was in front of us. The other two nodded and followed me.

"Jimbei, so the next tast involves mirrors?" I heard Marco ask again.

"Yes, but I don't know what exactly" He said.

"Ace, are you sure it didn't say anything about it before?" Marco then asked me.

"It just said that it had something to do with mirrors and chosing one, but nothing else" I quickly replied.

"Damn" Marco said, cursing due to not knowing what the second test consisted of. The first one had been very obvious, but this one... it was a different story.

Soon we arrived to a place where there was an enormous and very adorned wooden door, that led to the second task.

"There it is" I said.

Jimbei and Marco nodded and we all made our way towards the door, preparing to open it, but before we had managed to reach it a scream as heard from the inside. It was a desperate and terrified scream, full of anger and many other emotions.

"Luffy!" I heard myself shouting in turn, as I reached to the door and tried to open it, just to find that the door didn't open. It was almost as if the room wanted us to remain out of it until the people inside it were either dead or out of it too.

Jimbei and Marco looked at me with worried glances as the scream was soon repeated. What was happening in there? "Ace..." I heard Marco start saying.

"We have to get in there!" I shouted, as I kept trying to open the door in all possible ways.

"It is useless. The door won't open until the ones that are inside the room doing the second test go out of it when if they manage to complete the second test or die trying" Jimbei said.

I knew this, but I still kept trying to open the door. "I know this! But I must help him!" i said, desperation clear in my voice. It was clear by that scream that my little brother wasn't having a very good time inside that room, and I wanted to help me.

I felt Marco's hand on my shoulder, as he tried to comfort me. "Its no use Ace. We will just have to wait" He said.

I continued trying to open the door for some time, but I soon ended up realising what they both had said and stopped, sitting down on the floor very uncomfortable as the sounds coming from the room continued. Suddenly another scream was heard, but this one had more anger in it than the other ones before. Then the sound of mirrors and glass shattering was heard, and soon everything was silent. What had happened?

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Luffy's POV:

I had been inside this room for quite an amount of time. I knew that Brook was beside me, but I was so concentrated on the mirrors that I had forgotten about anything that wasn't the images on the mirrors. I felt bad. My attention was easily drawn by many of the mirrors with horrible images, some with ridiculous ones and other ones with some nicer images that didn't seem true at all. I felt as if my very soul was being drawn to the different images. As if it was being slowly being trapped by it and all energy from my body was being absorbed by them, making the images more and more horrible. I felt my eyes turn from silver to white at a speed that couldn't be anything good, and I did feel weaker now. I was suddenly feeling a horrifying and painful burning sensation on my throat that told me that I was almost starving. I felt dizzy, and I felt like I was about to vomit. I looked at the mirrors now as if they were alternate realities or images of the past and future. I was slowly losing the notion of reality and of what I was meant to do here, all of this stolen and absorbed by the horrifying mirrors that although seemed innocent and harmless were far from it.

I looked to one side, and then saw a image of me murdering and torturing my friends and... Ace, and then becoming a monster. This was enough to break the little strength that I had left, and I soon was lying on my knees vomiting _blood_. I couched once I finished, just before another wave of pain went across me that caused me to vomit more. I tried to move and to recover the strength that I had when I had entered the room, but it seemed useless. I felt weak, and also as if I was slowly dying because of this room and losing my mind. It was some time after this, once the vomiting had stopped, that I managed to get on my feet, and I managed to get on my feet and move around the room a bit using the mirrors for support. I soon was covering my mouth as I found myself vomiting a bit of more blood from time to time, still due to the effect that the mirrors had on me. I felt the wave of pain I my throat intensify. I felt very bad, and not just physically, but also mentally.

I was scared, due to who knows why, and horrified at some of the images that the mirrors showed. I felt myself vomit again blood when I saw another disturbing image, and this time it fell on my hand as I tried to stop this from happening, but ended up on the floor. I stopped using the wall for support and covered my mouth with my other hand, which did manage to diminish the amount of blood falling and me to not lose as much blood as I was losing right now, but it also made me balance around and finally fall on my knees again. I felt hot tears run down my eyes, and I heard myself screaming again with pain and horror. I didn't know how much time I was like this until I managed to gather enough strength to get up and stand on my feet to look around the room more.

"I have to... find it" I muttered again and again with a weak voice as I walked around the room still using some of the mirrors for support. It was then when I saw a mirror that showed me as being the most loyal servant of Blackbeard while I watched my friends die tortured before me.

I felt my blood boil with anger, and even though I had lost quite an amount of blood I felt a lot of strength return to me. I was furious, furious at Blackbeard for having caused all of this, furious at the people that had caused all of this, furious at the spirits that had once inhabited that world, furious at every single thing in the world. I felt myself not using the wall as support to walk anymore and staggered towards that mirror. I then gathered even more strength and punched that mirror, successfully shattering it. My anger, instead of disappearing, just increased with this, and I suddenly was punching many of the mirrors around it, screaming with more anger. This continued for quite some time, until I fell on my knees, exhausted.

I felt some more hot tears go down from my eyes, and I then punched the ground, feeling bad for not managing to complete this test by now and for not having defeated Blackbeard live. It was then when I looked up at a mirror that I hadn't noticed before, and I noticed that it showed me standing beside my friends and with Ace, happily. The image of me then kissed the Ace that was shown in the mirror, and it was then when I realised that that was the correct mirror. I wanted to be back with my friends happily and with Ace, and live my life normally and happy. I got up and walked towards the mirror, still staggering. I then touched it, and I was surprised when I noticed it opening, and leading to the corridor that took to the third and final test. I went through it, now not paying any attention to anything that was around me, not Brook or anything else. I was walking with decision, trapped inside my very own thoughts. The mirror returned to its original position closing the room, and before I knew it I had arrived to the third and final test.


	34. Chapter 34

Here is chapter 34! I hope that you enjoy it, and please forgive me for it talking so long. Well, the end of this story is going to come soon, so there will be about 4, 5 or 6 chapters more. Well, onwards *doesn't know what else to say*

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story

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Ace's POV:

We were all staring at the door that led to the second test and that was currently closed. It was to remain closed until the people that were inside the room had finished the second test, and I was nervous because I knew that Luffy was inside that room and I couldn't help but wonder what had happened inside the room. Those screams that had been heard earlier... what had happened? And why was it all so quietly suddenly?

Suddenly a loud mechanical sound was heard, and soon the door opened, revealing a thin corridor with a sudden turn that didn't let us see what was inside the room. I looked at it for several seconds, not registering what had just happened until Marco spoke.

"The test finished" He said, as he looked at the corridor in front of us.

I nodded unconsciously as I continued staring at the corridor that now was in front of it.

"Let's go" Jimbei then said, which caused us to start walking into the corridor and towards the room. I walked quickly, wanting to find very soon what had happened inside that room. I was nervous, and I felt very worried. I couldn't stop thinking about what could have possibly gone wrong. Could Luffy be dead? Was he okay? I felt Marco's and Jimbei's eyes on me, and I felt Marco's hand on my shoulder, telling me that everything would be okay.

We reached the room, and I was surprised by the eerie aura that was inside the room. It seemed as if the very mirrors were giving off this aura and as if these were absorbing our very souls. Several of the mirrors had been broken, something that had been clearly caused by the last person that had been inside this room, in a fit of rage. I looked around me. The room was well lighted and very bog, so big that you couldn't see its end. Every single part of the wall was covered with different mirrors, of different shapes and sizes. Each mirror was showing a different image. Some of them showed images of me, and some of other people or objects. I wondered what each of these meant. I walked across the room, staring with curiosity at all the mirrors around me. From the corner of my eye I could see the Marco and Jimbei looking at the mirrors with the same expression of curiosity of their faces.

"What do these mirrors show?" I asked aloud, after seeing quite a few images.

Marco didn't answer, and instead it was Jimbei the one that resolved my doubt. He was silent for several seconds before answering, as if he was thinking about the answer. "They show dreams" He quickly said.

I looked at him with surprise. Dreams? What did he mean with that? "What do you mean by that?" I asked him.

"They show different possible dreams and wishes of the heart. Some of them are not true, and I can guess that of these there is only one mirror that shows the true wish and desire of the heart" He answered.

"So then we must find the mirror that shows the true wish and desire of the heart?" Marco then asked.

"I guess so" Jimbei replied.

I nodded and I then continued walking around the room, looking at the mirrors that appeared. I could see some scenes that I felt some attraction for, while I was disgusted at what others showed. Had Luffy had to go through this before? What had been the correct mirror?

Minutes passed, and as I advanced trough the room the number of shattered mirrors increased. Soon enough I came across marks of blood of a hand. I felt all breath leave me and really shocked. This smell... wasn't it Luffy's blood? What had happened here? Soon enough the marks of blood on the mirrors multiplied, and blood falling down to the floor could be seen. Soon enough I started seeing small pools of blood on the floor, that like the marks of the hands on the windows started becoming more frequent and that allowed you to almost make out how the person that all this blood had belonged to had moved.

"Luffy" I muttered, as I looked at this, feeling very worried. He had lost a lot of blood, and this wasn't good. He would have lost a lot of strength due to this. What had happened to him? I looked around myself and stared at the different mirrors. There were so many images, and I found myself not being able to concentrate too much due to the smell of the blood that I had drank several times and that still lingered in my head, haunting me. There was something strangely attractive about it, and now that I knew what had caused it I couldn't help but to feel lightly ashamed by this, but at the same time I felt lightly attracted by this, as if the flavour of the blood was craved by my body. I gulped, trying to get my mind of this but not managing to achieve this, and instead I tried to focus more on the different mirrors that were on the room. Around me I could see Jimbei and Marco looking at the different mirrors, and while I could see that Jimbei had a calm look on his face Marco had an angry look on his face. He almost looked as if he was about to throw himself at one of the mirrors and shatter it in a million pieces.

I looked around, and I soon felt a light feeling of anger rise inside me, but I somehow managed to calm myself as I looked at other mirrors that had other images that were more calming than or not as bad as other ones that showed horrifying and outrageous things. I continued walking through the room, followed by Marco and Jimbei while we were all looking at all the different mirrors, all trying to find the correct one.

"Only the one that shows our true wish leads to the next test" I muttered, as I looked around, concentrating on several mirrors and still thinking about all of the blood that we had found inside this room that without a doubt belonged to Luffy. "But how can I find that one?" i then asked myself mentally. I did have many ambitions and wishes, but how could I identify my true wish? By the expressions on Marco's and Jimbei's faces I could easily see that they were most likely wondering the exact same thing.

Quite a lot of time seemed to have past until I found a mirror that showed an image that I identified as one of my wishes easily. This mirror was nowhere near to the end of the room, and although we had been walking for quite a bit already it was obvious that there still was an even larger part of the room that could be still be walked through. By then I had ended up being quite angry and even felt like shattering several mirrors more due to what they showed. I had felt sick several times due to what several others showed too, like me killing my nakama, Luffy and other countless things.

This mirror... I was beside Luffy and my nakama and friends, and it was clear that Blackbeard had been killed and finally defeated. It was peaceful, and Luffy had his arm over my shoulder in a very close and almost loving way. It made my dead heart ache and long for him.

"It's this one" I said, which caused Marco and Jimbei to look at the mirror, tht was several metres ahead of them.

"Are you sure it is this one?" I heard Marco ask.

"Yes, it is this one. I know that this is the mirror that shows my true wish" I heard Jimbei add.

"Very well" Marco then said, as he took a stop forward the mirror. He then placed his hand on it and soon another mechanical sound was heard, which caused the mirror to move slightly and to reveal another corridor that led to the third test. Beside the mirror there were some marks of blood. We all entered this corridor and started walking towards the third test that would lead us to Luffy and to Blackbeard.

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Luffy's POV:

I walked across the cold stone corridors, not paying any attention to my surroundings at all. I thought that I heard the door that had led me to the room where the second test had taken place opening again, but I quickly dismissed this to be part of my imagination. No one could have possibly followed me, now one. I knew that Ace was safe right now, I had after all taken both cups and left him alone in the desert near the second temple that we had been at, and there was no way that he could have managed to follow me through the desert or find h this place, and it was this thought. That Ace would be safe from Blackbeard, the one that made me able to concentrate on my mission, more or less. I was happy that he was going to be safe and that nothing like what had happened 810 years ago would be repeated. Yes, he would be able to live on even if this meant that I would have to pay with my life. I was prepared to do this, and I didn't feel a single twinge of fear at thought that this thing that I was trying to do could cost me my life. I would defeat Blackbeard and save Ace. I knew that I would manage to do this, and nothing would stop me.

"I'm nearly there. Only one more test" I thought as I continued walking forwards, almost dragging myself. I was still leaning on the wall for support, but I was capable of walking perfectly well, at least now, even though I had lost quite a lot of blood and I was very thirsty. I could feel my eyes changing to black very fast and frequently, as the monster inside me clawed to take control so it could survive. I was still managing to control it, but I felt quite weak though, due to the blood lost and the long time that I had passed without drinking any blood. I was slowly losing control of myself, and I hoped that I would manage to stand this and retain my control. The last thing that I wanted was to let the bloodthirsty monster inside me take control and to give in to my inner desires and craves for blood.

I could feel myself dragging along my feet as I took steps forward. I could lightly feel the temperature of the air around me go down bit by bit, however I wasn't aware of anything else. I had forgotten about the rest of my surroundings, and it was because of this that I didn't notice when I was where the third test was until I had completed it. I had even become unaware of what type of floor I was stepping on and of the other person that was following me, Brook. It was sometime after I started walking through the corridor that had been revealed after completing the second test that I heard him mutter something and when I became aware of his presence, but nonetheless I still imagined this as being part of my imagination or nonexistent, and the fact that I hadn't completely understood what he had said contributed to this.

"Luffy, be-!" I heard him say again. It was probably one in a shouting voice, but because of some reason my senses were slightly numbed, and I couldn't understand what he said after that completely.

I continued walking forward, just staring at the corridor that was ahead of me. I didn't hear Brook saying anything to me again, and I wondered why that was. Had anything happened? I felt slightly worried and curious, but even though I felt like this I just continued walking forwards and not turning around in any moment. It was when I was almost near that corridor in front of me when I noticed for the first time a tall and slender female figure in front of me.

"You cannot enter here, man" the figure said as it moved so it was rightin the middle of the corridor.

I frowned, not liking this, and just continued walking towards the figure.

"You dare to defy me?" the figure shouted. I recognised the voice of the figure to be that of a woman.

I didn't say anything, and still continued walking forward. I was frowning. I didn't like the thought of having to fight right now a single bit. I could see the female figure get into an aggressive position, and soon she started running towards me. I gritted my teeth, annoyed, and I soon managed to block the kick that she had directed at me. As soon as I had managed to block her first attack she turned around and she tried to kick me with her other leg, but I again managed to stop her. She then turned around and then landed on her feet, still blocking my path. She was breathing heavily.

"You are strong" She said, with a surprised face. "But you will not pass! You will fall now victim of my beauty". She then added.

She got hold of some sort of staff. She then said something, that I couldn't really recognise, and soon enough I found myself being surrounded by some sort of pink ray of light, and I covered my face and sucked my lips inwards, trying to defend myself from the unknown attack. It seemed like quite a number of minutes had passed when she finished, and it was only then when I noticed the expression of surprise that was on her face.

"How could you survive?" I heard her mutter to herself.

I looked at her, not knowing what she was referring to. What did she mean? Why hadn't her attack succeeded?

"How could you not find me beautiful?" She then said, as she looked at me with an inquisitive tone of voice, as she supported herself on a wall and she brushed some sweat off her face.

I decided to continue walking forwards, and I found that this time she didn't try to stop me. I could almost feel her eyes on me, looking at me with a surprised and up to a point slightly angry too. I grinned as I walked ahead of her and to where Blackbeard surely was.

I suddenly turned around, and grinned at her. "Thanks you for letting me pass!" I told her, with one of my infamous grins on my face. She stared at me and I saw a light blush form on her face, but I ignored this and continued walking forward.


	35. Chapter 35

Here is chapter 35! I hope that you enjoy it! It has been quite hard to write, since even though I have the ideas of how to end the story quite clear I still don't know well how to write these chapters. Oh well, please enjoy!

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As I continued walking forward I could start t hear light voices, whispers, that grew louder and louder as I advanced. They seemed to belong to the people that would surely be inside the last room, inside the room where the path to that other world would be opened. Why were there voices? Who were they? I remembered my encounter with that other female on the path here, right after the third test, that I hadn't noticed exactly what it was about. Had she been protecting the path to that room? Why?

"It isn't possible, I am the first person to enter this room" I thought as I continued walking with a very slow pace.

I didn't have a clue of who that woman was, and even less of why she had been there, but I decided that I would better be in alert in case something happened. I continued walking in a very tired way, just like I had been walking before. I could feel the weight of the two cups in the bad with the watermelon design that my brother had always carried with him and the weight of both halves of the medallion, one of which was hanging still from my neck and the other also hanging from my neck, both still divided in half. I felt slightly guilty now for leaving him there, without giving him any explanations of why I had gone away along with everything that we had worked hard to get.

I yearned to see him. I really did. I wanted to see him again, even if it hadn't been that long since I had last seen him. I wanted to feel his lips on mine. I wanted to feel that delightful sensation that I had felt the last time that our lips had met. I really wanted to feel it again. I wanted to get those butterflies in my stomach again as I saw his face close to mine. I wanted to feel my dead heart racing again due to his proximity, and that feeling of being complete that always came when I was with him. I really wanted to feel these again, even if it seemed stupid. I really liked being with Ace, and it had only been when he was missing when I realised how much I liked to be with him. It had been during those long 810 years that I had spent without him when I thought that he was dead when I had realised just how much I liked him and the nature of my feelings. It had been only then that I had realised how important Ace had been, and was, in my life. I had never thought that he would be alive. The possibility had never entered my mind, not a single time. I had seen him fall unconscious on top of top of the snow, and that moment had replayed itself inside my mind a million times, each creating the same heartbreaking effect on me, every single one.

I had loved when I had seen him again all of those weeks ago. It had made me feel so full and happy, and the butterflies in my stomach and that feeling that I had thought as being dead and long gone had suddenly returned with an unexpected force, and I suddenly had started feeling just like I had years ago, but now knowing fully the feelings that I had inside me and what they were and signified. I was sorry that I had left him there because all of this, but it was also all of this what was now was pushing me to go on and on, even though I was exhausted. I would fight for Ace and for having a life together in this world without Blackbeard destroying anything, like he had done all of that time ago. To get all of this I had to first defeat the man, and this was what I was about to do, and I knew that I would manage to do it.

I soon noticed the voices turning louder and louder, and I particularly noticed a voice of someone that I had met several times and hated like no other. How could it be that _he_ was here? How could have he? There was going to be a battle outside, one in which I wouldn't be able to help all of my friends and that I felt guilty for not being able to do this, but I needed to do this, and couldn't be interrupted. I knew that they were strong and that they would manage to defeat anyone that was on their path, anyone. They would be okay, I was sure of it.

The air was getting colder at the same rhythm in which the voices got louder and louder. It was then when i heard an all too familiar laugh coming from the room that was surely not too far away from my position.

"Zehahahaha!" I heard the man that I was determined to defeat laugh. I gritted my teeth as soon as I heard him, and I clenched my fist tightly. I then started walking completely straight, no matter how exhausted I was, and with a steady walking pace, which was what made me able to reach the door that led to this last room quicker and faster.

I was in front of the room. I breathed in and out, trying to calm myself, and it was then when I heard several angry voices from the inside of the room. I couldn't manage to recognise two of the voices, but I did manage to recognise the third voice that could be heard, that clearly belonged to Blackbeard. I wondered if they already knew that I was just outside the room, and if I should enter now. Suddenly some more shouts and loud voices, followed by the sound of a sharp impact that was followed by a complete silence, in which I could only hear myself breathe and almost think.

I hesitated and wondered if I should enter the room now. I could almost feel the two cups pushing and wanting to get inside that room, but I couldn't help but wonder if I should go inside seeing that there had been voices coming from the inside the room. "I will enter and finish all of this" I thought to myself as I unconsciously clutched my half of the medallion and breathed in and out several more times.

I gently touched the massive door that was in front of me, and I gently pushed it forwards, slowly revealing the room where everything would happen.

The door opened with quite a loud creak, and soon an enormous and very dark room was revealed. At the other extreme of the room, directly in front of me, there was a large circular stone, and in front of it there were three pedestals. One of them, the one in the centre, seemed to have some golden things incrusted on it, and the other two pedestals didn't have anything on it. The large circular rock that was on the wall that was directly opposite of the door seemed to have some kind of hole on its centre, and I couldn't help but wonder what this was meant for.

I took several steps into the room, still surrounded by an absolute silence. The room was very dark, and I could only see what was right in front of me with the light that came from the corridor that I had just left. I looked around me, trying to see the parts of the room that weren't illuminated by the light, soon finding that even with my vampire sight it was something almost impossible. I stopped walking for several seconds as I looked more closely around me, but soon started walking forwards again, closer to those three pedestals inside of the room. It was once that I had reached the centre of the room that I heard a voice come from behind me.

"And so we were brought the rest of the things that we need by our dearest humanized vampire" I heard someone say from behind me.

I turned around and looked at the person that had spoken before, and soon realised that it had been Blackbeard the one that had spoken. Beside him was a tall guy with a strange hat and bear ears and beside him someone that wore a coat that indicated that he was a vice-admiral.

"You!" I said as soon as I saw them, with my voice full of disgust.

The man, Blackbeard, just grinned as he took several steps towards me. "It was about time that you arrived here" Blackbeard then said when he was right in front of me.

I gritted my teeth and I clenched my fists tighter as I felt a wave of anger flood me. How could have he...? How could he? Had I been tricked?

"I see that you aren't saying anything" Blackbeard then said, as he looked at my face, that clearly expressed all of the anger and hate that I was feeling right now. "It is a shame that you have been so damaged by the three tests. Oh well, I we will have to proceed now" He then said again.

I looked at him walk slowly around me, clearly thinking about something. I could feel the stares of the other two people that were inside the room going right through me. I got into a position that indicated that I was prepared to attack in any moment. What was he going to do? I didn't care. I would make sure to stop him if he tried to do anything. I felt my eyes become black once, and I quickly managed to return then to normal. I was tired and quite worn out, but I would make sure that I would stop Blackbeard.

"Oh no. There is no need for that... Luffy" Blackbeard suddenly started saying, as he stopped walking around me and placed his hand on my head, as if I was some sort of pet.

"What do you want?" I asked him, as I got into an even more aggressive position as I moved his hand with a punch.

"You will see soon, chosen one. You will see soon what I want and how all of your efforts to prevent it are in vain. You gave us everything that we wanted. Such a shame for you and that other useless vampire that accompanied you to get the cups after you escaped from our attack..." He then continued muttering.

"Ace isn't useless! He is worth far more than you are!" I shouted at Blackbeard then, furious that the man had dared to insult Ace like that.

"Zehahaha! I don't care what you say or do now, you have done exactly what I wanted to, and not you or your stupid and useless love is going to stop me!" Blackbeard then shouted, as he patted my head three times and then punched me, sending me into a wall. "Now the time has finally arrived! Show me what you have got, descendant of the chosen one!" Blackbeard then shouted.

I coughed and got up, some rubble from the wall falling off from my clothes. I got into an aggressive position and launched myself at Blackbeard, prepared to fight.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Ace's POV:

The three of us: Jimbei, Marco and I were running now through the corridor that took to the third test. The three of us were thinking what the third test could possibly consist of. Could it possibly be a fight? Another maze like the one we had gone through earlier only deadlier? Was there even a third test? The only sound that could be heard was the one of our feet as we ran forwards, all clearly wanting to reach the last room as soon as possible. The only thoughts in my head were about reaching Luffy and about what could possibly go wrong. I was wondering about Blackbeard. According to what Rayleigh had told me earlier Blackbeard hadn't been at the original formation of the battle, and it was very unlikely that someone like him would miss the battle and allowed to do so by the government. One vice admiral had also been missing and two of the Sichibukai too. So many people missing and so powerful too... What was the government planning? This was too suspicious and I was starting to wonder and worry about what could have happened. Luffy had passed the second test, but why had then so much of his blood been there? What had happened? Was he okay?

"Ace" I suddenly heard my blonde friend say.

"What is it, Marco?" I asked.

"You are wondering about that too, aren't you?" He then asked as he looked at my eyes.

I looked at him and thought before answering, quickly knowing what he was referring to.

"Yes" I simply replied, before I pressed my orange hat to my head and heard the sound of my necklace as it collided against my bare skin. It was starting to be cold around here, and although I had quite a big resistance against cold I was starting to feel its effects, although not too big. I felt that I was in a good physical condition, ready to fight in any moment.

"He must be planning something. Beware, Blackbeard is not one to improvise, he has everything planned out well" I heard Jimbei say then. "Be prepared for an attack in any moment" Jimbei then added.

I nodded, and then refocused on the path ahead of us, soon thinking about what could have happened before and about what could happen now. Blackbeard... I could feel my anger rise just by thinking about him. If he dared to lay a single finger on Lu he would pay, and I would make sure that this would happen. I wouldn't allow him to destroy our lives, and everyone else's again. On the walls of this corridor we could clearly see that there were some faint bloodstains on the walls, clearly belonging to Lu. Several minutes passed until I saw that several metres ahead of me, there was a wide space that was clearly not part of the corridor that we had been running through earlier.

"The third test" I thought, as I got closer and closer to the 'room' that was ahead of us. We soon arrived, and the first thing that I noticed was the enormous abyss that was in front of us, that blocked the way to the corridor that was on the other side and that led without a doubt to the last room, the one where Luffy surely was at and where we would have to end everything. I was about to enter this room to finish the last test when I heard a voice beside me.

"People" It simply said. I turned around and found a _skeleton_ standing there, looking at us.


	36. Chapter 36

I am very sorry for how long this chapter took! I am back at home and so expect the next chapter to be up tomorrow! (and also to be longer). Anyways, I just saw the last Harry Potter movie and even though it was nice I was quite angry at them eating several important parts of the book . I will be re reading that book again very soon lol. Anyways, onwards with the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own this story.

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Ace's POV:

I stared at the skeleton dumbfounded. I didn't know how to react, even though I had seen a lot of different kinds of people and creatures. I was standing in front of a talking _skeleton._ A _talking_ skeleton. No matter where you emphasized the phrase it still seemed awkward, strange and most importantly: impossible. I could only stare at the skeleton that had just talked without knowing very well what to say. What _could_ I say? I could see him staring at the abyss in front of us after casting a brief glance at the three of us.

"What and who are you?" I then asked the skeleton, doubt and a slight twinge of curiosity obvious in my voice.

The skeleton then turned around and looked at me. I couldn't read his expression due to his appearance. He suddenly tilted his head and greeted me in an extremely formal way. "I am Brook, and I am a vampire" he said.

"You're a vampire?" I heard Marco say, interest obvious in his voice.

"Yes, but I was converted under very exceptional condition" The skeleton then said.

"Oh" I heard Marco then add once he had heard the answer of the strange vampire.

After that was said an uncomfortable silence was created, which made all of us quite tense. I still was standing there, looking at the skeleton while thinking what the hell the skeleton was doing there and what he had to do with Luffy. Speaking of Luffy, where was he? What had he done to go through this last test?

"Have you done anything to Luffy?" I then asked the skeleton with a menacing glance.

The skeleton looked surprised at me. "Luffy? Do you know him?" He asked then, surprised.

"Yes" I simply replied "I want to find him" I said then added.

The skeleton looked at me, thinking about what he would answer. After several seconds he opened his mouth and started talking about what had happened here before. "I see" he said, with an undertone of voice that suggested that he knew more than what he was about to explain. "I was charged a long time ago of waiting here for the two chosen ones, but when one of the ¡m finally arrived here he said that he was enough to save everything on his own, without his other half" Brook said.

My face suddenly turned into one of concern. "Luffy did what?" I shouted out of worry.

Brook laughed. "Yohohohoho! So much concern, you really are the other half!" He said, with that strange laugh of his again.

"How did you know that he is the other half?" Marco immediately asked with a demanding tone of voice.

"Yohohoho! Like discovering who Luffy really was it has been very easy to discover that you are the other half, especially because I once met the two original ones and both of you are exactly the same as they were, at least physically" Brook explained. "And then there is that concern on your eyes that a person can only have for someone really close and important. The same concern that your ancestor had for the other one" Brook then added, with obvious amusement on his face.

I felt my face become as red as a tomato as he mentioned this. Were my feelings _that_ obvious? I heard Marco laugh at Brook's comment just before he himself started talking.

"So the other one went through here?" He then asked.

"Yes. This is the third test, and as you can see the enormous abyss in front of us is what is stopping us from reaching the last room, where the entrance to the other world surely has to be at" Brook answered.

"How did Luffy enter it then?" Jimbei then asked.

"He walked through it" Brook then said "Yohohoho! It scared me so much that I could have died, but I'm already..." Brook started saying.

"Walked?" I suddenly shouted, interrupting Brook unconsciously.

Brook pouted several times, clearly not liking that I had interrupted him from saying what he was going to say without knowing that I had done this. He then was quiet for very few seconds before he started talking again.

"Yes, he walked through it" Brook then said with a dead serious tone of voice.

I stared at Brook, then at Marco and at Jimbei and then at the abyss, not managing to understand what could have possibly happened and what Luffy had done to manage to cross the abyss.

"He just walked straight through it, he was so concentrated on what was in front of him, what he would have to do and exhausted from the other tests that he didn't even notice me when I was calling him and telling me to stop" Brook then added again.

I didn't reply anything, and I started looking at the abyss. I then walked towards it, noticing that the other three vampires behind me were also staring at the path. I looked at it for several seconds, trying to find some kind of visible way of crossing the abyss. I was trying to locate some sort of path created by rocks or a rope above the abyss, but I didn't manage to find anything at all. "How could he have possibly passed?" I wondered aloud, as I stared at it. I could only see the immense fall that was in front of me and the other side of the abyss that seemed more unreachable than ever. I couldn't figure out how Luffy could have possibly gone to the other end. Brook had said that he had just walked forwards, not noticing him. But how could he have done this? Was it because he was a chosen one? No. It couldn't be that. I was the other chosen one, and yet there didn't seem like there was anything magical about this. Maybe it was the cups? That seemed likely, but it still didn't seem like the result of this test depended on both cups. So, if it wasn't the cups or the fact that he was the chosen on what had it been?

"Luffy crossed through this place?" I suddenly heard Marco ask.

"Yes" Brook replied. "I wonder how he managed to do that" He then added as he 'looked' at the abyss.

I then continued looking at the abyss, until I suddenly had an idea of how Luffy could have reached the other end. What if there was some kind of path above the abyss that we couldn't see? I took a step forwards and arrived at the border of the abyss, right in front of the corridor at the other end.

"Ace, what are you thinking about?" I heard Marco ask me.

"You'll see" I answered. I then turned around and looked at Brook. "Luffy walked straight through here, didn't he?" I then asked the skeleton. .

"Y-yes he did" Brook immediately answered.

"Okay" I then said as I turned around again to face the abyss in front of me. I took deep breaths in and out. This had to better work or else. I looked down and at the fall in front of me. I couldn't see it's end, it became dark before it could be seen, so it would probably mean death if I fell down, but it had to be this. There clearly wasn't any other way to cross the abyss, and since Luffy had apparently walked straight ahead that meant that...

I could feel the eyes of my friends on me and I turned around to look at the other two men and at the other strange vampire, all of which were looking at me. I turned around again, hoping that I was right, and I then took a step forwards into the abyss. I closed my eyes, and prayed again to all the gods that I had ever heard of that this worked. I took a breath in, and I suddenly found myself stepping on some kind of surface.

I opened my eyes and looked down, extremely surprised by what was happening. I was no longer standing on the edge of the abyss, but right on top of it, and yet I wasn't falling down. My theory was correct; there was an invisible path on top of the abyss.

"I can't believe it" I heard Marco said with a surprised face.

"I see" Jimbei just said as he stared at first at me, and then at the corridor that was in front of me. He then took a step forwards and soon we were all walking through the abyss towards the corridor that would surely take us to the last room.

Several minutes passed, and soon the four of us had reached the other side. It was then when a very loud sound that came from the corridor in front of us was heard, followed by the loud and sickening sound of bones cracking. A scream, a loud _thump_ and then a terrifying laugh that I knew very well.

"Luffy!" I shouted then, recognising the scream that I had heard very few times in my life, as I started running forwards.

We continued running through the corridors, and soon I managed to see a figure in the distance. It seemed to be a female figure, and it didn't seem to be too friendly by the position that she was in. I didn't stop running when I saw her and realised that she would most probably attack us, and neither did the other three people that were running behind me. It was bare seconds after seeing the female that Jimbei realised who she was.

"It's the vampire empress!" he said, with a cautious tone of voice.

I was shocked at this. That figure was the sichibukai Boa Hancock? The so called 'vampire empress'? This couldn't be good. If she was guarding the last room, who knows why, we would have problems. She was known to be quite strong and powerful after all. Soon enough we were bare metres away from her.

"You won't take a step further!" I heard her shout once we were a few metres away from her. She was still in an aggressive position, and she seemed ready to attack. She wasn't surprised to see us here, did she already know?

"How did you know that we were coming here?" Marco then asked as soon as he had realised the same thing that I had just realised.

"Blackbeard told the government about the two chosen ones coming to the ruins" The vampire empress then said with a cocky tone of voice "But you won't manage to reach your destiny" She then added, obviously ready to attack us at any moment now.

I was shocked by this. I hadn't thought of the possibility of them knowing that we would come here. Did this mean that they already knew that Luffy had gone into this place? Had the vampire empress done anything to him? "What have you done to Luffy?" I then shouted her, suddenly worried by Luffy's well being.

The vampire empress didn't look too weak or as if she had just fought for too long, even less been defeated. Luffy had been apparently quite weak after the second test, as I had seen by the amount of blood that had been there and as Brook had mentioned, and to this Luffy was also quite weak when he entered this place because of the high possibility of him not having any blood on his to this last temple, so he would have been at a serious disadvantage if he had had to fight anyone that was strong before getting to Blackbeard.

"All men are my enemies, but I will not harm him" She suddenly replied, which surprised us all.

"Why didn't you?" I then asked her with evident curiosity in my voice. However she ignored me and she soon attacked me, making a fight start.

The fight with her lasted a few seconds, until Marco managed tos top her by attacking her for a bit.

"Let us go through!" He said.

"No, you are men!" She then shouted back right before launching herself at me, prepared to attack me. This time she was stopped by Jimbei.

"Ace, you have to go forwards to reach Luffy. Don't worry about us. We well deal with the vampire empress now" He said.

"But-!" I started saying.

"He is right Ace, you just have to reach the room to help Luffy and then everything will be alright. Don't worry about us Ace, we will reach you soon" I heard Marco then add.

I hesitated, but then decided to trust them and go forwards. "I'm counting on you!" I shouted at them right before I passed Boa Hancock, who didn't seem too happy about this and tried to attack and stop me, but was stopped by Jimbei and Marco. Soon enough I had left them behind and I was getting closer and closer to the last room.

The air was getting increasingly cooler, and I could hear the faint sound of clashing weapons. It was then when I heard it: A clash that was louder, the sound of someone falling onto the guard and then silence, a silence that was broken a minute later by the sound of a loud supernatural buzz.

"Luffy!" I shouted.


	37. Chapter 37

Here is chapter 37! I hope that you enjoy it, I really did like writing this one. Anyways, now we're really close to the end of the story, and I feel so strange because of that. Anyways, onwards with the story!

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Luffy's POV:

I caught a glimpse of the other two men inside the room just staring at me as i launched myself at Blackbeard, completely uncaring about what I was doing. I felt another light wave of anger go through me due to how they had just classified me to be everything but a danger, and instead just be a nuisance that now had no value to their plans. I would prove them wrong right now.

I soon was very close to Blackbeard, and then I made sure to attack him with my silver dagger while I got hold of my gun. I managed to made a very small cut on his face, but he soon had blocked my attack and forced me to jump backwards to avoid his next attack.

"I had forgotten just how much of a nuisance you are..." Blackbeard then muttered as he cleaned the blood that slowly dripped out of the cut that I had made on his cheek.

I grinned "I am not the same one that I was all of those years ago" I quickly replied, with a grin on my face.

"Zehahaha! We'll see that!" Blackbeard then said, before he ran towards me with a sword prepared to attack me.

I blocked his attack with my dagger and then shot at him with my gun, completing perfectly one of the many hunter fighting techniques that I had learnt to perfection. He managed to dodge my shot and soon we were both attacking each other lethally and quickly, receiving some damage occasionally but dodging each other's attacks most of the time. A few minutes passed with us fighting and the other two people in the room doing nothing, and while I was quite damaged due to the tests that I had had to go through to get here I knew that I had enough energy to maintain this rhythm of fighting for some more time. However I soon sensed that Blackbeard, even though in a perfect physical form, or almost in one due to my attacks, was in a hurry to end this fight. Why was that hurry caused? He had nothing to fear from fighting me and it was not like I had any reinforcements coming. In fact, he was the one with two allies around him.

I dodged another attack made by him and then attacked him myself with my dagger, managing to make a cut, that was slightly deeper than the other one. Before I could avoid his next attack and with a surprising speed, he lifted his left leg and kicked me very hard with it, making me go flying towards the wall behind me and crash into it, soon falling onto the floor.

"You worthless bug" he then said with clear anger. "I cannot afford to lose more time with you here. I have to continue with my plan. You alone will not manage to defeat me, and even less in that state" He then added as another kick landed on me as I tried to get up.

I fell onto the floor again, this time coughing blood. I tried to get up again, but the same thing was repeated, causing me to cough more blood.

"You even continue trying to defeat me!" He then said, amused. "I will now show you how useless it has been for you to come here, worthless humanised vampire" Blackbeard then said as he kicked me again, this time sending me in another direction and making me crash into another wall, that this time was closer to where the portal to the other world would surely open itself.

By the time that I opened my eyes he was right in front me, stopping for a moment to look at me as I tried to get up but soon taking another step towards me, grabbing me by the torn and heavy cloak that I now wore and lifting me from the ground. I glared at him as he did this and struggled to break free from his grasp, but didn't manage anything.

"And you still try to defeat me even if your current state. How impressive, chosen one" Blackbeard then said. "I don't have time to play with you though, since I have other things in mind" He then added.

"You won't manage to complete your plan!" I shouted at him.

"Zehahaha! You don't seem to understand..." Blackbeard then started saying with a very loud laugh "You don't seem to understand that I am already managing to do what I want. My plan continues being as strong as ever!" He then said. "Zehahaha!" .

I growled and continued glaring at him and continuing to break free, when I was suddenly thrown by him to the floor. I coughed up more blood, and the next thing that I knew was that he was grabbing the bag, originally from Ace, where the two cups had been in since Ace and I had managed to get them. "No! Don't you dare to touch those!" I shouted at him as I moved, trying to stop him from getting the bag.

He punched me in the face, making me shut up, and got the bag that I had been so desperate to protect. He opened it, and saw the two cups in it and one of the halves of the medallion.

"I wonder where the other one is..." He then started saying as he kicked me very strongly in the stomach, something that made me cough even more blood, to be moved slightly to one side and to fall on my back with nearly no strength to get up. He then grabbed me by the neck with one hand and lifted me up again. His other hand just grabbed the front part of my cloak, that already was quite torn and damaged, and just tore it apart, making the cloak that I had wore for such a long time fall to the floor and the half of the medallion that I had wore since I was a kid be revealed.

As soon as he saw it he grinned maniacally. "So here it is!" He said, with a sadistically happy tone of voice. He then threw me with quite a lot of strength to the floor, making me bounce once and to be damaged even more. "Thank you for this, humanized vampire" He then said, with mock pity. He then turned around and just when he was about to start walking to the centre of the room, where there where to pedestals and other things that were destined without a doubt to opening the portal to the other world, the vice-admiral that was present in the room started talking.

"What do you think you are doing Blackbeard?" He asked with an aggressive and warning tone of voice. "You know very well what you have to do now" He said. "Give me those objects you just recovered and the ones that you had from before. You have to give them to the government, just like you said you would all of that time ago when you did that pact with us" He then finished saying.

Blackbeard laughed as he turned around to face the vice-admiral that now was standing beside the guy with the strange hat and the bear ears in a clearly aggressive stance. "Zehahaha! Did you really think that-" He then started saying as he started running towards the two men. "-I would abandon my plans to fulfil the pact that I had with the government?" He then finished shouting as he kicked the man with a powerful kick that sent him to the other end of the room and attacked the strange man with the hat with his sward, managing to cut him in half.

"Triator!" The vice admiral shouted at Blackbeard as the other man with the strange hat and ears fell dead onto the ground.

Blackbeard laughed again. "Do you think that I care about you?" He then shouted as he made a mortal wound to the vice admiral with his sword.

I stared at the scene without believing my eyes. Blackbeard had killed his... nakama? How could he? I was still lying on the floor with my back facing the roof of the room, trying to get up on my feet to continue fighting Blackbeard but failing to do this and instead just coughing blood every time that I tried to get up.

Soon the vice admiral fell unconscious onto the ground and Blackbeard turned around to face where he had deposited the bag with all of the things that he would need. This included those that he had recovered himself. He took some steps towards it, but stopped when he was a few metres away and instead started walking towards me, chuckling. He soon was right in front of me, grabbing me by the front of the red vest that I always wore and that now was slightly redder due to the blood that I had been coughing up and that was on the floor.

He laughed very loudly again, and threw me against a wall yet again, making me crash against it and fall onto the floor. I tried to get up, but soon I found that I was without any energy right now and that I was too wounded to manage to get up or to do anything else. I just continued glaring at Blackbeard and almost growling at him as he got closer to me again. Once he was in front of me again he spoke again, laughing cruelly at the start.

"What would be better than showing you my victory?" He said then with a cruel and sadistic tone of voice. He then took one step towards me, kicked me in the stomach again, which made me hiss with pain, and grabbed me by the front part of the red vest again.

"You won't manage to complete your plans Blackbeard! You will be defeated and you won't manage to get your hands on that stone!" I shouted then.

"Zehahaha! Oh, you will see how I manage to crush you and everything that you have fought for. You will even see how I kill everyone that you love" He then said in a very sadistic way.

Once he had stopped talking he clutched the part of my red vest that he was grabbing and carrying me with even more tightly and started walking towards the bag where the cups, the medallion and where what he had recovered was at. He got hold of it, and then started walking towards the centre of the room and towards the pedestals that would open the way to that other world. Once that he was right in front of them he dropped me onto the floor, and then opened the bag with all of the things.

"First the cup of light" he said as he got the cup that Ace and I had recovered un that temple where only I had managed to resist the bright light that somehow shone inside it. He then placed in on top of one of the pedestals. "Then the 'stars'" He said as he walked towards the second pedestal. He got hold of some kind of rocks or of circular metal pieces that seemed to have different drawings on them. They were just like what we had seen in that drawing inside the other two temples. He then placed them on top of the second pedestal. "Thirdly the cup of darkness" He then said, as he got hold of the cup that Ace and I had retrieved at the temple that had been in the middle of the desert and as he placed it on top of the last pedestal.

A loud supernatural buzz was heard, and soon the wall directly opposite of the entrance door started shining. I stared at it with surprise and wonder, not believing my eyes. The portal was almost open.

"And finally the medallion given to the two chosen ones" Blackbeard then said as he got hold of the medallion that Ace and I had carried in halves and that now was complete. He walked towards the almost open portal and then placed it at the centre of it.

As soon as he did this an even louder supernatural buzz was heard, and soon the portal started to open itself. A bright bluish light started appearing and growing form the centre of that strange wall, and it didn't stop growing until it was a massive circle the size of many humans on top of another.

"It is done" He then said with a very proud tone of voice and with a sadistic smile on his face. He then turned around and went towards me, soon grabbing me again by the front of my red vest. He then walked towards the portal. "Zehahaha! Victory is mine, and you won't be able to stop me!" He said with a cruel tone of voice. He took a step towards the portal, but stopped suddenly before he entered it. "I will give you a reward for your efforts though, chosen one" He then started saying "I will let you see the other world, the world that your ancestor knew and where he managed to stop me for the first time. I will show you the world where I will achieve my victory" He then said with another laugh, just before he threw me at the portal.

I felt myself being attracted by the portal, or rather my soul being attracted by the portal. It was as if I was being sucked by it. I closed my eyes as I passed the blue portal, and the last thing that I saw was a grinning Blackbeard jumping towards the portal and my body falling onto the cold floor of the room. What had happened?


	38. Chapter 38

Here is chapter 38! I absolutely loved writing this one, absolutely LOVED it. It was so nice ^_^ It was quite hard coming up with what should appear on this chapter (consider the last two paragraphs some kind of present =P), it is so hard to write these last chapters since I am so close to the end and I'm not too sure what to make each chapter have, even though I know what the end is going to be like. Anyways, I hope that you enjoy this chapter! Thank you for all of the reviews, favs and alerts! I'm very glad that all of you guys like this story! =D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Ace's POV:

I ran desperately forwards, wanting to reach as soon as possible the next and last room. That scream... it had undoubtedly belonged to Luffy. What had happened to him? What had happened inside that last room? I felt a shudder go up my spine as I thought of all of the possible things that could have happened to the person most important to me.

"If you have done anything to him you will pay Blackbeard" I muttered as I continued running in a tone of voice that would have made anyone shiver from pure fear.

Luffy's scream had seemed to be so full of pain. I only hoped that he was okay, that was the only thing that I was currently wishing for. I wasn't able to imagine how being without Luffy again would be. I was completely unable to imagine how life without him would be, let alone how I would manage to cope with him 'dying' again. I wouldn't be able to stand it. I needed to be close to Luffy now, after we had found each other and after I had managed to finally place and recognise the nature of my feelings for him. He even felt the same way for me, and that was something that surprised me a lot, but in a good way. I had never thought of Luffy as someone who would fall in love or even know what those kind of feelings were like. If he went away I wouldn't want to continue going on. No. If he went away I would want to die, no matter what else happened. A world without Luffy just wasn't worth it. That was why I had to reach the last room as soon as possible, to make sure that nothing had happened to him, to protect him, to defeat Blackbeard and to stop his plans and to tell Luffy just how important he was for me again, if I managed to say it. I had never expressed affection too well

Seconds seemed to turn into minutes and minutes into hours as I ran towards the last room, with all of these thoughts constantly repeating themselves inside my head. An eternity seemed to have passed before I the last room, and by then the only sound that could be heard was the loud supernatural buzz that I had heard earlier. Soon I was right in front of a huge and massive wooden door that clearly led to the last room. The atmosphere was quite cold and seemed to be charged with some kind of supernatural energy that was filling all of my senses. The door had several drawings on it and several writings on it too that I didn't bother to read the writings.

I touched the door and quickly opened it. A very loud '_creak'_ was heard as I did this, filling all of the corridor that I had been running through before, and soon the last room was revealed. It was quite dark, and the only sources of light that filled the room seemed to come from the walls and from some place inside the room that was directly opposite from where I was but that I couldn't distinguish very well due to the great distance that was between the two points. I entered the room and took a deep breath, and it was then when I realised that the whole room smelled of _blood_. I looked around me, trying to find the source of the smell, and it was then when I saw two bodies lying on the floor quite near the entrance. One was from the sichibukai Kuma, and the other one was from a vice admiral. Both had very deep slashes on them, and Kuma was _cut in half_. I went towards the bodies to check if any of the two were alive, but I soon found that neither of them had a single twinge of life in them. The walls beside them had numerous parts where you could see that a body had been thrown against it. On the floor there was quite an amount of rubble beside these parts of the wall that had been destroyed by someone.

I continued walking around the room, looking around me. There were many parts of the wall that had these marks on them and were destroyed. There had been quite a fight inside here not so long ago. The room was huge, and I could see many destroyed pictures and words written by the ancient people on them. Soon I detected another smell. It was also blood, but this one was more familiar. It was a blood that I had even tasted not so long ago, from a person very important to me. Luffy's blood. By now I was nearly at the centre of the room, very near the three pedestals that were at the centre of the room. I had been looking at the floor all of the time, and I hadn't realised my proximity to the three pedestals, what was on top of them, the bag beside them or the strange blue 'circle' that was directly in front of them and opposite to the only door that led to this room. No. Instead I was staring at the increasingly frequent red puddles of varying size that were starting to appear. This blood wasn't like the one that I had smelled earlier when I had entered the room. This blood was familiar. Very familiar, and I knew exactly why.

I bent down and ran one finger across one small puddle of blood that was very close to me, wishing that this wasn't what I had imagined. Once my fingertip was red with the still fresh blood I stood up and I tasted the blood to try and prove what I had just realised wrong, but soon I realised that this was the blood that I had tasted two times before, the one whose taste I would never forget and that I still longer for, even if I wasn't thirsty. It was Luffy's blood, just like I had detected by the smell.

"No!" I shouted once I had tasted the blood, realising who had then done all of the damage and had killed the sichibukai member and the vice admiral. That one had been Blackbeard, and Luffy probably was...

I looked around me anxiously, and it was then when I saw what was on top of the three pedestals, the bag that was beside them and the blue portal that had opened directly opposite from the entrance. It was then when I realised what had happened inside here and the winner of the fight that had happened here. It was then when I saw a familiar torn cloak near the three pedestals and a limp body right in front of the bluish portal that still was creating that loud supernatural buzz that filled the room and the corridor.

"Luffy!" I shouted as I ran towards the unmoving body of my adoptive younger body.

It only took a few seconds to reach the unmoving body. Once I was near the figure of Luffy I threw myself to the floor and shook it almost violently.

"Luffy! Wake up you idiot! I am finally here!" I shouted over and over again. I felt something damp fall from my eyes, and it wasn't until I heard myself sob one, two and three times that I realised that I was crying. I looked at Luffy, or at his now lifeless body. His eyes were closed, his clothes were torn and dirtied with dry and liquid blood, his straw hat also seemed to be missing, due to who knows why, there were no signs that showed that Luffy was alive and his whole body was covered in deep and not so deep wounds and signs of starvation. The thought that I was grabbing Luffy's dead body suddenly hit me with a massive force that made me clutch it even tighter and start crying harder, something that I hadn't done since Sabo's death.

"Luffy!" I shouted as I hugged the dead body of my younger brother and only love. "Luffy!" I shouted again.

I remained like this for a very long time, the only thought s in my head all of the moments that we had gone through together. I didn't remember anything else, or rather; there wasn't any space for anything else. I could only remember him grinning with that goofy grin of his at me, the feeling of his lips against mine, how it felt when he had bit be and when he had told me that he loved me. I could only remember these things, everything else displaced and forgotten.

More minutes passed, and I slowly became more and more aware of the portal that was open before me and the person that had done this to Luffy. I suddenly became aware of the person that had gone through the portal and of what he wanted to achieve. I was invaded by a strong feeling of anger and rage that demanded a bloody revenge, and I decided to follow it. It was what I should do and what I had to do to avenge Luffy. Yes. I would make sure that that bastard was dead before he could reach that stone and complete that so called 'dream' of his. I would make sure that Luffy hadn't died in vain and that what he had last tried to achieve was completed so he could rest in peace.

With these thoughts I placed my lips on Luffy's dead ones. "I love you" I whispered to his body. I got up and I walked towards the bluish portal and crossed it decided to avenge my younger brother and to complete what he had died trying to do. I crossed it, not even noticing the sucking sensation that went through all of my body as I did this and how my body was left behind once I had crossed the portal and how it fell very near Luffy's one.

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Marco's POV:

Soon enough Jimbei, the skeleton called 'Brook' and I had managed to defeat the vampire empress with some great teamwork, and she had ended up revealing us that she had voluntarily let Luffy go through this corridor before, and she had been quite glad let's say when she learnt that we were allies of Luffy. It hadn't been a bloody fight, but it had been quite damaging, and the corridor where we had somehow managed to fight in had ended up quite damaged. It was a wonder how it hadn't collapsed yet, seeing the amount of damage that had been made to it. Bare seconds had passed since the four of us had stopped fighting when we felt several presences behind us.

"Well done" I heard a very familiar voice say behind me.

The four of us turned around, and soon we found ourselves staring at Rayleigh. Behind him were Aokiji, Zoro, Nami, that Usopp, several other hunters, Sanji and several other vampires that were members of the Whiteberad vampires.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Rayleigh. "Weren't you all fighting outside this place?" I then asked again.

Rayleigh laughed. "Yes, but the fight has ended. We have won" He stated. "It's good to see you again, Hancock" Rayleigh then said, greeting the vampire empress.

I stared at him with shock, not managing to believe entirely what he said. They had defeated Blackbeard's allies and the government already? How had they managed to do that? It didn't seem like so much time had passed... right?

"Many hours have passed already. You may have not noticed, but a whole day has passed since you entered this place" Rayleigh then said.

"A day?" I said, very surprised. It had only seemed like a few hours had passed since we had entered this place. How was it possible? I then looked at the ones that were behind Rayleigh, more specifically at Zoro. During the time that I had spent with him he had mentioned a couple of times his dream of becoming the best swordsman in the world, and I had seen him before Ace and I had entered this place starting to fight the best swordsman in the world Dracule Mihawk. Did that mean that he had managed to...?

"Zoro, did you defeat Mihawk?" I asked, wondering what had been the result of the fight.

"Yes" He replied calmly.

We remained silent during the next seconds, thinking about what we had all have to go through the last... day. It was Rayleigh the one that broke the silence after he looked around.

"So it has started already..." He muttered.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, wondering what he had meant by that.

He looked around himself a bit more, as if feeling the atmosphere. "The portal has been open" He said. "Where are ace and Luffy?" He then asked aloud.

"Luffy was always in front of us, and Ace went in front of us while we fought the vampire empress" I said.

"We have to be quick then" Rayleigh then said. "We have to reach the last room as soon as possible to see what has happened" He then finished saying.

We all nodded and started running towards the last room, wondering what had happened there.

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Luffy's POV:

I slowly opened my eyes as I regained consciousness. After Blackbeard had taken me through the portal I had managed to follow him for a bit, but I had ended up falling unconscious due to all of the wounds that had remained with me when I had gone through the portal and the little energy that I had left, not to mention the fact that I was _starving_ for blood.

I blinked several times, not being able to adjust my eyes to the bright light that surrounded me. I could feel someone hugging me tightly and something damp, probably tears, falling on my face. I could hear the person hugging me saying something, but I couldn't recognise clearly what he or she was saying. I blinked several times more, until I became used to the light that surrounded me, and it was only then when I recognised the person that was hugging me so tightly.

"Ace?" I said, quite weakly, as I moved my arms to hug my brother back.


	39. Chapter 39

Here is chapter 39! Sorry for the wait, but I hope that you enjoy this chapter! Like always thanks for the reviews, favs and alerts! You guys rock! Anyways, there are some more interesting revelations in this chapter! Please let me know what you think of this chapter when you read it! Anyways, on with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Ace's POV:

I opened my eyes again, and I immediately started looking at the strange room that I was now inside of. I could feel the portal buzzing in that supernatural way behind me, but this didn't have my attention anymore. I was in the middle of a huge rectangular room made of very big rocks. Behind me and the portal there was a huge wooden door with several drawings and golden decorations on it that were surely made of an expensive and precious metal. On the walls that were beside the door there were several tapestries that were quite similar to the medieval ones that were sometimes found in my world. Covering the floor of this room there was a massive carpet of a deep red colour that had many decorations on its edges. This carpet covered most of the room, and left empty only the edges of the room. The walls that were on my sides were covered with huge windows that showed what was outside of this building, and this allowed me to see the massive gardens that were surrounding this place, that resembled a lot some sort of castle or palace, and the forest, river and mountain that were also around this place, giving it a calm and detached aura and also helping to illuminate very well the strange room. In front of me there was another huge door that was very similar to the one that was behind me, although that had some different drawings and decorations on it.

I looked around me for some time, just staring and exploring with my powerful sight the room that I had appeared in. It was very well illuminated, and it clearly was daytime. However there was something strange about this daytime. It wasn't a normal day like the ones that I had lived through in my world when I was still a human. This one seemed frozen and paralysed. As if this place was stuck in this state forever. I could only wonder what had happened here to cause the whole place or world to be like this. I looked back at the portal that was behind me and that I had crossed moments before, trying to see my world again through it, but finding that this was impossible. I shook my head, getting all of these thoughts out of my head and concentrating fully once again on what I wanted to do.

"I have to get to that rock and to Blackbeard" I muttered with a low tone of voice just before I started moving towards the door that was right in front of me.

It took me about a minute to get to the door that was in front of me due to the size of this room, and during this time the images of Luffy's unmoving and lifeless body plagued my head as if it was a curse, making me swear bloody murder on Blackbeard more than once. Once I was in front of the door I placed my hands on the cold wooden door and gently pushed it forwards. Once the door was open I took a step forwards and closed my eyes as I felt a gentle breeze hit me on the face. It was gentle and sweet, almost loving, like the caress of a lover. I enjoyed for a bit the breeze and then continued walking forwards and through the gardens towards the main section of the castle or palace that was in front of me. The room that I had appeared in was inside a smaller and separate section of the building, and to access this smaller building you had to walk through the gardens that surrounded it.

Even though there was a gentle breeze the air wasn't moving too much, and even though there were several fountains at many places in the huge garden you couldn't hear the sound of moving water. There was an uncomfortable silence and atmosphere around the whole place that almost made me shudder and look over my shoulder. There were no sounds of birds or of other animals, and there wasn't a single soul inside this world. There was no one, and this, added to the strange 'day' that filled this world just made the whole place seem quite uncomfortable, empty and abandoned. It wasn't a nice feeling.

Soon I reached a door that led into the main building. This one was smaller than the one that I had crossed earlier, and it led to a long and very well decorated corridor. This door was quite decorated as well, and it was as impressive as the last one had been even though it was smaller. As I walked through the corridor I looked around me and at all of the different tapestries and pictures that hung on the walls. They were all very well done and had a lot of detail on them. Some even had some writing on them.

I soon came across another door, and I gently opened it again. I entered another room that was very similar to the one that I had appeared at, only this one had some very well kept furniture inside it. This process was repeated many times, and before I knew it I had been in and out of countless rooms. This place was very well kept and extremely clean. It was as if time didn't pass inside here. There wasn't a single spot of dust anywhere, and none of the different pieces of furniture that I had found until now seemed old in any way. Inside some rooms I had seen food that was served already on the tables, along with a familiar red liquid that was sometimes in some of the cups that accompanied these dishes. The strange thing was that none of this food was rotten in any way, and yet I hadn't seen a single soul inside this place yet. I had seen no one, so why was the food still in such a good state?

Time passed, and I soon arrived at a room that had several doors. This time there was something different. The room was very similar to the ones that I had seen before and just as relaxing and uncomfortable as the other that I had been inside before had been. On one of the walls there was a huge tapestry that depicted two figures walking together, one with a mortal wound and the other perfectly fine and with no wounds on its body. It was a haunting and attracting picture that almost drew me to it. I went towards the centre of the room, where there was a very well kept and open white piano. I touched some of its keys, filling the whole place with a completely random melody for some very brief moments. It was only then, after the sound of the piano died out, when I finally realised what had seemed so strange to me in this room. It was the sound. The sound that could be heard from another room that was surely not too far away. The sound was like the sound made when someone breathed in and out quite heavily.

"I must be imagining it" I told myself as I shook my head. It was impossible that there was someone at this place other than me and Blackbeard. This place was 'dead', and the first time that people had entered it, it had already been dying. It also had a strange aura of stillness that had been setting my nerves on edge since I had entered this place through the portal. I looked at the piano that was at the centre of the room with interest. I had never learnt to play the piano, but I had always liked to listen to nakama from the Whitebeard Vampires playing it. I shook my head again when my thoughts started going back to that heavy breathing sound and I then went towards one of the other three doors that also led to this room. I opened slowly and soon I was at another room.

This one didn't have much inside it, just several more tapestries, decoration and some furniture. I went towards the other only door in the room and opened it. Soon I had returned to quick walking n and out of rooms that I had been doing before. I went in and out of about seven more rooms, when I somehow came back to the room with the big and white piano that I had been inside of earlier. It was still open.

"What the..." I muttered as I looked around me. I hadn't thought that this would happen. How could I have possibly gone back to this room? I had been walking straight most of the time. This was surely a very strange place. Of course it was then when I heard it again, that heavy breathing sound that I had heard when I had last been inside this room. I looked at the door that I had used to enter the room once again, and as soon as I had recognised the other doors that I had used to enter the room for the first time and to leave the room then I walked towards the fourth and last door that I still hadn't used. I opened the door and entered the other room.

This one was full of bookshelves that were heavily loaded with books of all kind, some seeming very old and some seeming very new. I walked across it, suddenly becoming aware of just how louder the breathing sound seemed. Whoever was making it surely was very close to this room. At the other end of the room I found two doors, both leading in opposite directions. Unconsciously I went towards the one where the faint breathing sound was heard teh best from and opened it.

Soon I found myself in a room that was also very big. This room was like the throne rooms inside the palaces that appeared inside the stories that were told to the small children in my world. There were several columns all over the room, and huge windows on two sides of the room. In front of the door that I had used to enter the room there were several enormous and golden chair set in a semicircle shape. Some of them were broken, but only two remained intact. I wondered how the chairs had been broken and what this room had been used for. It seemed to be the room where important decisions were made, and the semicircle shape in which the chairs were arranged... it almost reminded me of some kind of 'parliament' arrangement of some sorts. I walked to the centre of the room, and it wasn't until I was there when I realised what was causing that breathing sound that had surprised me so much.

It was beside one of the huge windows that showed clearly the beautiful landscape that could be seen from this place. I walked towards it, at first not recognising it clearly due to the distance that separated us, but soon I realised that what was beside the window was an unconscious body: An unconscious body with a very familiar straw hat, red vest, short blue trousers and slightly worn out sandals. What was beside the window was Luffy's body.

"Lu-!" I shouted as I suddenly started running towards the unconscious but breathing body of the person that I had thought to be dead. How in the world was this possible? I had seen is lifeless body in front of the portal in my world, so how was it possible that he was here _breathing _and _alive_?

I soon was right in front of him, and not even a second had passed until I was hugging him quite tightly. I still couldn't believe my eyes. Luffy was alive! But how?

"Luffy you reckless idiot" I said to my still unconscious brother several times as I felt my eyes getting damp. I hugged him tighter and I soon was on my eyes looking at Luffy. I had closed my eyes and I kept repeating what I had just said before to him. I couldn't think too rationally.

Several seconds later Luffy started blinking his eyes as he became conscious again, but it wasn't until I felt another pair of weaker arms hug me back that I realised that Luffy was conscious again.

"Ace?" I heard him say quite weakly.

I stopped breathing for some time, still not believing this. "Luffy!" I said again, hugging him even tighter, if possible.

"Ace, you are squashing me!" He said again, quite weakly. He was about to say something else, but I soon stopped him from doing this by placing my lips on his, a gesture that was soon returned by him too.

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Marco's POV:

By the time all of us reached the room we saw the terrifying scene that was in front of us. Inside the room there were the two dead bodies of a sichibukai and of a vice admiral, the portal was open at the other end of the room and right in front of it there were the two motionless bodies of the two people that we had all known quite well.

"Ace! Luffy!" I said, as soon as I saw them. This was done by many other people that had also gone into the room, including that strange green haired werewolf that had somehow defeated Mihawk.

Soon we were all right in front of the portal, surrounding the bodies and quite nervous as we wondered what had happened in here, all of us except Rayleigh and Aokiji. Of course I didn't fail to notice this. What did Rayleigh and Aokiji know that we didn't?

"Rayleigh..." I started saying. "What has happened in here?" I then finished saying.

The man chuckled. "Both entered the other world, and to do this their soul was separated from their body" He said. "They aren't dead, but at the other side of the portal" He then added.

"Will they come back?" I then asked.

"If they manage to finish everything and defeat Blackbeard they well, but..." He then said, suddenly stopping at the end.

"But what?" I heard Zoro ask.

Rayleigh looked at us. "You already know what happened all of those years ago at that world" He said. We all nodded. "Blackbeard wishes to have that stone that gives every wish to the one that touches it" He started saying. We all nodded again, it was quite simplistic, but we had already discussed this several times before the battle as we prepared for it. "and to stop everything they have to destroy the rock or access to it" He then said again "However there is something more about the rock that you still don't know" He then added, stopping for some time after he had finished this phrase.

"What do you mean?" I asked the man.

"Anyone who uses the rock or even touches it will have to remain inside that world, and the rock can't be transported to this world, it was bound to that one a very long time ago, and to destroy it or to close access to it they will have to use it" He then finished saying.

"But that means...!" Zoro started saying, in shock.

"Yes. That means that one of them will not be able to return to this world and will remain trapped in that world forever" He said.


	40. Chapter 40

Here is chapter 40! I swear I have written and re written this chapter so many times over the last days, it has been just so hard to write! Anyways, I hope that you like it (there are several interesting things in this chapter). Thanks for reading this fanfic and for all of the favs, alerts and reviews that you have given me! You guys are the best! Anyways, let's continue with the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Once Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story and all the original locations and such

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Luffy's POV:

I stared at Ace with surprise as I hugged him quite weakly. I couldn't believe that he was here. Why was he here? I should have been the one to arrive to this place, and Ace should not be here. Last time that I had seen him we were both at that desert, and I had left him there, taking all the objects that we needed to get to this place. I had come here to stop Blackbeard by myself and to destroy that cursed stone that gave all of the user's wishes and that had only caused problems to us. I had come to do this on my own because I was one of the chosen ones, and so that I could protect Ace from death or anything bad that could happen to him. I knew that I was now at the other world, after being defeated by Blackbeard and being brought here by that man. I was here so I could defeat him. I had to do this, no matter the physical condition that I was in. I had been feeling a burning sensation in my throat for quite some time before entering this place, but right now I didn't feel it anymore. I didn't feel the thirst anymore, and I liked this because I didn't have to feel that nagging pain that I had become so used to over the years. I couldn't help but wonder why this had happened though. Was it the effect that this world was having on me or was it something else entirely?

I was looking into Ace's beautiful deep black eyes deep in thought when I suddenly heard him say my name with nervousness, love and relief and hug me very tightly, something that forced me to breathe out suddenly.

"Ace, you are squashing me!" I said to the older male quite weakly. He seemed to ignore me and instead just continued hugging me tightly. I was about to say something else when I felt his lips land quickly and desperately on mine, cutting the words that I was about to say. At first I stared at him with shock, not having expected him to do this so suddenly. However soon I closed my eyes and pulled him closer to me, almost immediately responding to the first innocent kiss and then passionate one that had been initiated by the person that I loved the most.

This kiss lasted who knows how much time. Probably several minutes, I didn't know exactly and I didn't care either. We broke apart quite slowly even though both of our lungs were burning for and demanding air. We then stared at each other for quite some time, our faces sill being bare centimetres away from each other. I could feel Ace's breath on my lips and face, something that was strangely attracting and relaxing at the same time. I knew that he was feeling the same thing that I was feeling right now. I was sure of it. My dead heart was beating at a thousand miles per hour right now due to the proximity of Ace. It was almost unbearable. I swear I could even hear my own heart beating right now. I was so happy to be with him again, even if he wasn't meant to be here. His presence was calming and reassuring, and I liked being so close to him right now. I liked having him bare centimetres away from me and feeling his heart beat at a similar rhythm to the one that my heart was beating at. I had missed everything about him: His presence, his voice, his kisses, his eyes... I had missed absolutely everything about him, and it had been so unbearable.

"Ace" I said as I contained a sob and as I started hugging him tightly. "Ace" I then said again, as I felt tears start going down from my eyes.

"Luffy" I heard Ace say with a clearly worried and understanding tone of voice, the latter being quite surprising considering that he was Ace. "Luffy, don't worry. I am here now. Everything will be okay" He said with a whisper as he hugged me tightly again. By now we were both sitting on the cold stone floor.

"I missed you so much!" I then said, now hugging him in a way that made my face rest on his neck. My eyes were closed now, and I was unable to think of anything else that wasn't Ace.

"I missed you too Lu" I heard Ace say as he rested his head on my neck in a similar way. I swear I felt a drop of something damp fall on the skin of my neck. Ace then started whispering soothing words in my ear to make me recompose myself.

We both remained like this for quite some time, until I managed to recompose myself.. Even then I could only think of Ace. I had forgotten everything else. However it was when we broke apart and when I looked at Ace's eyes that I remembered where I was, why I was here and when I remembered the fact that Ace was standing in front of me and what this signified. I was at the other world, at the world where that dreadful stone was located and where Blackbeard also was. I was here to stop Blackbeard, and more importantly to defend Ace and to prevent anything bad from happening to him, because I was one of the chosen ones and it was my job to do so. I was here because I loved him, and yet I had been saved by him yet again.

"Ace, why are you here?" I asked him as I stared into his eyes, my voice full of doubt and wonder. Why was he here? He wasn't supposed to be here? He should be at the desert or with Rayleigh and his nakama.

"You still don't understand, don't you Lu?" I heard Ace immediately say.

"What?" I asked aloud, not understanding what he meant.

"Lu, I am here to protect you too. I am here to stop anything bad happening to you" I heard him say.

This shocked me. I wasn't expecting this from him. "But... I am a chosen one, I have to protect you. It is my duty to do so. I have to stop Blackbeard" I said.

Ace chuckled. "Don't you remember the prophecy? We need to do this together. We need to defeat him together. It is together that we will be able to stop him. Separate we will achieve nothing. We need both halves, both chosen ones, to stop Blackbeard" Ace then replied.

"But I am the only chosen one here" I said, not understanding what Ace meant by that.

"You really didn't get it Luffy" Ace then said with a half joking half serious tone of voice.

"What do you mean?" I asked the other male.

"I am the other half. I am the other chosen one. We can only succeed together" He then replied as he stared deep into my eyes.

I was shocked by this. I didn't know what to answer or what to say. Hell, I didn't even know what to _think_. Ace was the other half. How was this possible? How was it? What was I supposed to do now, or rather, what were we supposed to do now? What did this mean? How had this happened?

"But..." I started saying, just about to ask Ace a question.

"Don't you see it? The way in which I felt at both of the temples, my family, even the prophecy, the cups and the medallion. Everything indicates that I am the other chosen one" Ace said. "But I am not here just because of that. I am here also to protect you, and I would still be here even if I wasn't one of the 'chosen ones'" He then said again.

"But..." I started saying again. I wanted to protect him. I wouldn't be able to stand it if we were separated again, permanently or not permanently. I was here to ensure that this didn't happen. I had only pronounced one word of my new question when I was cut again my Ace's lips pressed again against mine. I tried to resist it, but soon I gave into the kiss again and responded eagerly.

"We need to do this together. I wouldn't be able to stand it if something happened to you, Luffy. I would never forgive myself it you... died, or worse. I am here because of the same reasons that you are here" Ace then said, as he pulled me closer.

We remained like this a while longer, both hugging each other. I didn't know what to say yet again, and that was why I was staring as I hugged Ace to a random wall of the room that I was currently in. It took some time until I my thoughts drifted back to the stone.

"We need to get to Blackbeard as soon as possible" I suddenly said with decision.

Ace stared at me as I stood up surprisingly well considering the wounds that still covered my body and the evident thirst that I was experiencing and yet that I didn't currently feel and that undoubtedly had a bad effect on me.

"Luffy, you have lost so much blood on the way here and you haven't even drunk in so many days..." Ace started saying as he got up too.

"I am okay" I lied, as I turned around towards the only other door that was in this room.

"No you aren't!" Ace immediately said as he grabbed me by my shoulder, preventing me from walking away. "I know that you don't like it, but you have to drink blood, and you know it. If you don't drink any you won't have as much strength as you should have for the fight, and even if we fight together we will only win if we have all of our strength, just like Blackbeard is right now" I heard Ace say with a clearly nervous tone of voice.

"Ace..." I muttered as I turned around again to look at his eyes. He looked so nervous.

"Luffy, you need to drink blood if you don't want anything bad to happen to you" He then said again. He then stared at me for several seconds, with no doubt thinking where I could drink the blood from, but of course soon he remembered what he could do. "Luffy" He said again, this time as he pulled me closer to him and my face closer to his neck. "Drink my blood" He then said.

I looked at his neck, at him and then looked away. "I can't do this Ace, it will be as if I steel your vitality, as if I feed on you and rob you your strength. You know I don't l like drinking blood" I said then.

"But you have to, Luffy!" Ace said with an even more nervous tone of voice, that this time had a strange calming undertone. "You have to drink some of my blood to get stronger and to survive. You know that you won't affect me in any way, I won't suffer anything" He then finished saying.

I thought about answering something to the older male again, but as I realised that it would be of no use and that he was right, not that I had any other choice but to admit these things, I turned my head towards his neck. I then noticed that I could see the two marks of the holes that showed where I had bitten him for the first time. It was strange that they hadn't disappeared, did they show anything special? I quickly shook my head, getting all of these thoughts out of my head and concentrating on what I was about to do. I could feel again the monster inside me begging for blood and demanding it and that painful feeling that accompanied thirst in my neck again. On top of that there was the strangely attracting feeling that I felt towards Ace's blood and that made me want to drink it. I opened my mouth, showing my fangs quite visibly, unlike what I had been trained to do. I took a breath in, and then bit Ace's neck, prepared to drink just what I needed of that sweet and attracting blood.

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Blackbeard's POV:

I was inside the room where that stone and all of the other remaining strange artefacts and objects were at. Right now I was right in front of the stone that would complete my every wish, and I knew that I would manage to complete my plans now. I had defeated that annoying brat, and he had been stupid enough to come to defeat me on his own. An error that his ancestor had also made but in different circumstances, since the other one that wanted to protect him, the other 'chosen one's' ancestor, had been very close to him. This time that other chosen one and saviour was at the other world and not even close to the portal, like I had planned and like I had seen before. He had been stupid and had decided to come to fight me alone, and that was why he had been defeated.

I took a step forwards, towards the stone, as I laughed with joy at the thought of seeing the exact copy of one of the men that had stopped my plans so much time ago when we had come to this place for the first time lying defeated on the ground and almost dead. Yes. I had won this time.

"The stone is now mine!" I shouted as I grabbed the stone with strength. I knew all of the limitations and inconvenient that the stone had, that it made the user stay in this world forever and also that you could not wish for the direct death of another human. However I knew what to ask. I had known for thousands of years. "Destroy the other world!" I commanded the stone. The stone then flew away from my hands and towards the centre of the room, glowing extremely brightly. I stared at it with admiration and happiness, realising that now I would be able to complete my plans. I would be able to do what I had wanted to ever since I had been born. I walked towards the stone to wish for more things when I heard the doors that led to this room open very quickly and with a lot of noise.

"Blackbeard, prepare to be defeated" I heard a pair of voices say.

I turned around with surprise and saw the two brats that I had converted into vampires such a long time ago, one by error, inside the same room as I. I saw the two chosen ones in the same room that I was currently inside of. I was shocked. Why was one of them alive? And why was the other one here? No. It didn't matter. I would defeat them either way, and no one would stop me from completing my plans. Not even the chosen ones.


	41. Chapter 41

So, this is it guys. The last chapter is finally here, and it is so sad for me to end this fanfic! I hope that you enjoy it just as much as I enjoyed writing it, even though it was hard to come up with it. It has been a very long travel with this fanfic, and it has taken a lot less to write it than I imagined at first. Well, thank you all for all of the favs, alerts and reviews that you left me! You really made me glad that I was writing this! Expect more stories for these two soon too! Well, onwards!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story

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Ace's POV:

I breathed in as I felt Luffy's sharp fangs right over the skin of my neck. It had been such a long time since this had last happened, since I had felt like this. Soon he sunk his fangs into my neck, and during this time I just continued pulling him close to me, only in a more gently way. I hadn't lied when I had said that I wouldn't suffer anything because of this, in fact, it was almost as if having Luffy doing this was liked by me and by my body, and the feeling that I got was even enjoyable, in a strange and kind of twisted sense.

Several minutes had passed already when Luffy stopped drinking my blood. He seemed a lot stranger now, and his wounds had started to heal already. He really had needed to drink some blood now, I could only help but wonder just how much time he had been in need of blood. Luffy looked at the ground, as if he was ashamed, and then he cleaned off the remaining blood that was on his chin with his hand, just to lick it off once it had been cleaned. He then remained in silence for some time, looking into my eye after some time. Yes, he was definitely ashamed of having to do this, but it didn't seem like he hadn't... _liked_ the drinking blood. Yes, that was quite evident too. Suddenly he spoke, interrupting all of my thoughts.

"Ace" He said with sudden force.

"What is it Luffy?" I asked him, wondering what he wanted to say.

"Those two marks that indicate where I bit you that first time... why are they still there? Why haven't they disappeared? I know that I also have those two on my neck too. What do they mean?" He asked with curiosity.

"Err..." I muttered, not knowing what to answer. I could remember everything that Marco had told me about this, and remembering this caused me almost immediately to blush quite badly. I looked at Luffy again, that now had a serious and slightly confused face. "Well, it means... you know..." I started saying, not really managing to explain anything at all.

"What?" Luffy asked, confused.

I gritted my teeth, cursing Luffy for not knowing what it meant. Of course, I hadn't known either at that time, but that was beside the point. I moved forwards and closer to Luffy, going towards his ear, and then I started explaining as best as I could the meaning of the two marks. As I did this Luffy's eyes widened, but his reaction of surprise didn't last more than a few seconds. He didn't blush madly either, and instead he maintained a somewhat surprising calm attitude that wasn't infected by a single bit of shame. Not. One. Bit. Once I had finished I looked at Luffy, and I was shocked by just how different his reaction had been from what I had expected. I had expected him to blush or give any sign of embarrassment about what had happened or to be extremely surprised. Instead he had a big wide grin on his face, and there wasn't a single bit of red on his cheeks, which contrasted deeply with my crimson tainted cheeks. What he said then shocked me even more.

"Cool" He said, as his already huge grin became even larger.

It was then when I got even redder, if possible. "W-what do you mean?" I said, stuttering quite a bit.

"It is good, why would it be bad?" Luffy said with his most innocent tone of voice.

"Y-yes, of course" I said, not believing that Luffy was in such good terms with this. It was like what human's considered marriage for god's sake! Of course, we both loved each other, however... No, he did surprisingly have a point. It was definitely not bad, and if I loved him and he loved me (and this had been so hard to admit) then it just could be good. Yes. It was good.

"It's good, you see Acey?" he then said with his trademark grin, that made me grin too.

"Who are you calling that?" I immediately shouted at him, but with that grin still on my face. I turned around and pretended to chase him for a bit, and he did this too. Soon we were both mock fighting, neither of us not managing to avoid laughing as hard as we could.

We remained like this for several minutes, completely forgetting, or almost, what we had to do here, what we were, what had happened and what could happen to both of us. We chased each other and fought a mock fight like we did when we were kids. We soon were both lying on the ground breathing heavily and slightly exhausted from the mock chase and fight. Luffy was laughing, and I was doing the same thing too, although in a smaller degree. We spend several seconds like this again, until we remembered again in what place we were currently at, the man that we had to defeat and what we had to do before we went back to our world.

"We better continue going on to defeat him" I said then, as I got up.

Luffy then stopped laughing, and his serious expression came back on. "Yes" he said.

We both walked towards the door that was inside this room, soon walking through rooms and more rooms, and opening doors and more doors. We spent quite a lot of time like this, and with each step that we took forwards the air started to get heavier and heavier with a supernatural feeling, with a feeling of power that started to set our nerves on edge. It was like a trail of powerful energy that led to the source it. I couldn't sense anything else near it and I knew that Luffy couldn't either, however we both knew that Black beard was there. Yes, the man that we had to defeat just had to be there, besides the stone.

We suddenly came across a door made of old wood that was significantly smaller than the others that we had come across before. It was quite damaged and not decorated at all, instead it just had pieces of metal across some of its parts that were surely meant to make the door more resistant. It was very damaged on some parts, and you could tell that these marks had been caused by a very strong and powerful fight that had occurred here quite some time ago. It was then, when we were about to open the door when we heard the voice of the man that we had to defeat wishing for something that shouldn't be wished for.

"The stone is now mine!" Blackbeard shouted from the room that was across this old and damaged door. "Destroy the other world!" He then shouted, undoubtedly wishing for this. Suddenly a very bright light started coming through the space that was between the door and the floor and walls, and then the supernatural energy that seemed to be floating in the air getting stronger and stronger, setting our nerves even more on edge and charging us with energy in a strange way.

We both took a step forward, and we then opened the door that led to the room quite loudly and entered the room. It was a circular room, and it had very small windows near the room. Below them there were candles that illuminated the whole room.

"Blackbeard, prepare to be defeated!" Both Luffy and I immediately shouted in complete unison. Blackbeard then turned around and looked at us with a face that showed just how surprised he was.

He remained in silence for several seconds, too surprised to say anything or just thinking about what he could say now or do he had made his wish. He seemed to be halfway towards the mysterious stone that was now floating at the middle of the room, with the sure aim of making some other wishes.

"Oh, look who came. The two brats that helped me get here to complete my plans, why did you come to talk to me?" Blackbeard said, visibly more relaxed and with a mocking tone of voice and an evil smirk plastered on his face.

"You are going to be defeated now and punished for everything that you have done Blackbeard!" Luffy then shouted, enraged, as he adopted a very aggressive posture and while he got hold of both of the weapons that he carried all the time with him. I placed a hand on his shoulder, as if I was telling him without words to recompose himself and to not attack without thinking. We had to defeat this man together, and if we acted rashly we would manage nothing. Doing this seemed to have the effect that I desired on Luffy, and the younger one soon calmed himself down a bit.

"What did you do?" I asked the old being that was standing in front of me with a dead serious tone of voice.

"I just took the first step to complete my plans. I destroyed the world that you both come from and love so much, and all thanks to that stone" Blackbeard said "Zehahaha!".

I felt myself pale. So all of my friends had just... disappeared like that?

"Aaaaaargh!" Luffy shouted, as he dashed forwards at Blackbeard, gripping his dagger and his gun, visibly enraged. "What did you do to my nakama?" He then shouted at Blackbeard as he attacked with the dagger then man.

"Oh, I just... killed them" Blackbeard said with an evil smirk on his face. This just made Luffy angrier, if possible. Blackbeard then blocked Luffy's attack with two silver swords that he had been carrying with him and putting both of them in a stalemate. Both of them then remained like that, trying to defeat the other with strength alone.

"Oi Luffy, don't lose control!" I shouted at the younger vampire as I got hold of my own weapon, that was so similar to whitebeard's one, and dashed forward to support the vampire that I knew so much. Luffy however didn't listen to me a single bit, and instead turned around in some strange way, clearly performing some kind of Hunter technique, and broke the stalemate that Blackbeard had imposed. He then turned around several times more, attacking Blackbeard with an impressive speed, even for a vampire. The sound of metal clashing against metal soon flooded the room, coming from Blackbeard's swords and Luffy's dagger and gun that he used for both attack and defence.

"Revert what you just did!" Luffy then shouted with rage.

"Why would I listen to you, brat?" Blackbeard shouted back.

This furious fight continued for some time like that until I managed to attack Blackbeard, who was moving very fast too around the room. My attack forced Blackbeard to take several steps back due to the sheer force of it

"How do you dare to attack me when I was fighting the other brat?" Blackbeard shouted at me.

"It is my duty as an older brother to protect him!" I shouted then as I attacked Blackbeard again. Blackbeard quickly defended himself and attacked me in turn, and I did the same thing. We were several seconds like this, attacking each other as fast and strongly as we could but not managing to hit the other. We attacked each other then at the same time, and managed to stop each other's attacks again, and instead of attacking the other again we jumped back, both breathing heavily.

Blackbeard was glaring at us for quite some time, but suddenly his expression changed to one of surprise and realisation. "Oh! So that is why!" He almost shouted. "Those two marks..." he then muttered.

I almost growled at him. "What about it?" I shouted at him.

"Zehahaha! Falling in love, what a _human_ feeling. And you consider yourself to me a vampire?" He shouted with a mocking tone of voice.

"At least I am not a _monster_" I shouted at the man and making him scowl at me with a deathly glare.

"You are so unoriginal, just like your ancestor. That bastard..." Blackbeard then said

"What did you say?" I shouted at the man.

"Both of you are so similar to them... mentally and physically. You surely deserve the same fate as well! It is even said at the prophecy that they themselves created" Blackbeard then said, with an evil laugh.

"You are the one that is going to be defeated!" I heard then Luffy shout as he attacked the man again. Blackbeard tried to dodge the blow, but this time the silver bullet he was hit on his left arm.

Blackbeard clutched his wound immediately as blood started to leak out of it. "It's not healing?" He said in obvious pain and confusion. Soon he realised why the wound wasn't healing. It was seconds later that he realised why his wound wasn't healing. "You used silver bullets! And that dagger is also made from silver! How do you dare to use that material?" He shouted with rage.

"I am hunter" Luffy simply replied.

"You are a vampire! I myself converted you into one!" Blackbeard then shouted again as he got on his feet, clutching his two swords and ignoring the pain he felt and the moment.

"I am not a vampire!" Luffy shouted right before he ran at Blackbeard. Soon both of them were attacking each other again, and the sound of metal clashing together flooded the room again.

"You drink blood and you are to blame of the same sins that I myself have. You have killed too" Blackbeard said with a malicious tone of voice.

"I have not converted anyone or killed an innocent" Luffy shouted "I am not a vampire! I have to live with the monster that you implanted in me!" Luffy then shouted again, enraged.

Both of them continued attacking each other, managing to wound the other a number of times, but not fatally yet. As the fight continued going on and on I noticed the stone shining brighter and brighter, and as this happened I started to remember the prophecy. "To defeat him we have to fight together..." I muttered as I continued trying to attack Blackbeard, but being unable at the moment to attack him or even get closer to both of them due to how quick they were both moving and fighting.

Their fight went on and on, and soon enough Luffy managed to make a quite deep gash on Blackbeard's other shoulder. By now the whole room was infested with the smell of blood, torturing all three of us. Blackbeard looked surprised, but in less than a second he was grinning like the very devil, and he swiftly grabbed Luffy's hand with strength to avoid him moving and pierced the younger vampire on his stomach with one of his swords, kicking him afterwards and sending him flying several metres back.

"This is also silver, brat" Blackbeard then said "I got these babies especially to ensure your death" He then added.

I was enraged by this, and I quickly dashed in Luffy's direction. "Lu, are you okay?" I asked him.

"I am fine Ace" Luffy said, as he got hold of the sword and pulled him out of himself quickly and effectively, as if he had already done this once. He then got off his red vest, that was quite torn and bloodied, and he wrapped it over his wound like a tourniquet to avoid further blood loss. Yes, he indeed knew what he was doing.

I turned around and glared at Blackbeard. "You are going down now" I said with a tone of voice filled with hate.

I got up, gripping my own weapon. Soon Luffy had also gotten up, and we both started walking towards Blackbeard. We would now fight together, like we had done so many times before as humans and a few as vampires. Like it was supposed to be.

"You will never defeat me! The prophecy announces my victory!" Blackbeard shouted as he gripped his only sword.

"Idiot" I said. "The prophecy announces that we, the chosen ones, will stop the last plan" I said with a calm and deadly tone of voice.

"You are lying!" Blackbeard shouted.

"Believe what you want then, but you have been warned" I then said.

A few seconds passed, and suddenly both of us dashed forwards at Blackbeard, and started attacking him with a deadly pace. Blackbeard started managing to defend himself, but as Luffy and I became again a team and started to fight together, complementing each other's moves perfectly, Blackbeard started to have to take steps backwards also started to receive a few minor wounds here and there. This persisted for several minutes, until those few wounds here and there were turned into wounds of increasing severity. It was then, who knows how much time after the start of the fight, when Luffy and I pierced with our weapons Blackbeard's body, creating a deadly wound caused with silver. The man was not going to recover from this.

Blackbeard fell onto the floor with his eyes full of pain and hate. He stared at the ceiling, and didn't look at us.

"You were defeated, just like the prophecy said" I stated then, as I glared at the man.

"No, you didn't stop my plan" Blackbeard then said as he chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Luffy then asked. I stared at the dying vampire, wondering the same thing.

"My wish... my plan... will not be stopped or reverted just because of my death. I used the stone, it willnot be reverted with my death. I will still achieve what I wanted" He said.

"Not if we wish for your wish to be disappeared" I answered.

"Zehahaha! You don't understand, do you?" Blackbeard said, obviously enjoying whatever he had thought about. "You both wish to go back to your world, to be happy there. But you won't manage to do that" He then added.

"And why wouldn't we manage to do that?" Luffy then said with a defiant tone of voice.

"The ones that use this stone are forced to remain bound to this world. Not even using the stone again will stop this from happening. To stop me one of you will have to use the stone, and this is what will make you be separated forever, because one cannot stay in this world forever without using the stone or having a pure spirit, something that neither of you has. On top of that, the path to this world will have to be closed if the stone is to remain safe, or the stone will have to be destroyed by wishing for its destruction, in which case the path to this world will also be closed." Blackbeard then said. "I've won!" he then shouted "And all thanks to your stupid human love, zehahaha!".

"Shut up" I said with a hate filled voice, as I kicked Blackbeard on the stomach and making him shut up finally, which probably was caused due to the deadly blood loss that he was suffering. I then turned around to look at Luffy. He was staring at the stone now, in deep though. So whoever used the stone would have to remain here forever... this was not good.

"Ace" I then heard Luffy say. I looked at him as he took a step towards me. "I will use the stone so that you can go back. I will take this burden so that you can be _free_" Luffy said with a dead serious tone of voice, that wasn't too common to see in him.

I gulped, not liking the situation. "Luffy, you don't have to do this for me!" I said as I pulled him into a hug. "I will do this! You have suffered too much already because of me, you almost died!" I said "I will use that stone!" I then shouted again, as I continued hugging him.

Luffy hugged me back. "No Ace, I will do this" He said "You have protected me many times, it is my turn to protect you" He then finished saying.

"I won't accept that" I said.

"I won't accept either being separated from you again" Luffy then replied again.

I gulped again, wondering what we should do now. We didn't want to be separated again, and this time it seemed that we had to be separated _forever _if we wanted to fulfil the prophecy. We remained like this, hugging each other, in complete silence. Not knowing what to say or do. Neither of us liked this situation or the decision that we had to make. Minutes passed, or maybe it was hours, I wasn't too sure, with us like this. It was after even more time had passed, if time was something that existed in this world that seemed to be frozen in it, that Luffy spoke again.

"I wouldn't stand having to leave you. We are brothers, and we were already separated once. Separating again would be like going through death itself" He said. I felt something damp fall onto my bare skin, was he crying?

"Yes" I just replied, as I remained completely still. It was then when I thought of something that could work. The one that used the stone would have to remain here, but what if the stone was used by two people? I grinned as soon as I thought of this, making Luffy look at me. "He Luffy" I started saying.

Luffy just looked at my eyes with an inquisitive face.

"What if we both use the stone?" I then asked aloud.

Luffy's face soon showed his shock, and he immediately grinned as realisation hit him. "Let's do that then" he said.

We broke apart from each other, and we then started walking towards the stone. Soon we were both grabbing it, and we then sealed our destiny. We 'erased' Blackbeard's wish, and we then decided to send the man back to our world, leaving the two of us in this world. We then closed the path that led to this world and destroyed the stone, leaving both of us bound to this world forever with no possibility of going back to our original one, and with this we completed the prophecy, we saved the other world, prevented Blackbeard from getting the stone and destroyed. We saved our world and made it be at peace once again. We restored happiness, and yet at the same time doomed ourselves to remain at this world, in which time now flowed due to the destruction of the stone or the path to this world. We would remain in this world, that was alive once again with who knows what creatures, _together_. And that was the important thing, that nothing would separate us ever again. I pulled Luffy into a kiss then, a kiss that he eagerly responded to.


End file.
